Skills, Talent and Diversity updates
Sign-up to get the latest updates and opportunities from our Skills, Talent and Diversity programme.
Why the Next Generation of Tech Needs Diverse Voices
I didn’t plan a career in tech. I came into it through work that focused on improving how organisations operate and how people experience their services, not through a traditional technical pathway. That experience has stuck with me because it taught me something simple. A lot of talent never makes it into the room where digital services get designed.
That matters because digital services shape everyday life now. Banking, booking appointments, paying bills, reporting issues to local councils, helping your kids with school, even staying in touch. When services are built by teams who all think and work in similar ways, they tend to assume users have time, confidence, good eyesight, and fast internet. In reality, plenty of people do not.
So when we talk about supporting the next generation in tech, I think we should be clear about what we are really trying to do: build teams with a wider mix of perspectives, so the services we build work for users in the moments that matter.
Why Diverse Talent Matters
Online safety is a good example of why this matters. When something goes wrong online, most people are not calmly reading instructions and weighing up options. They are worried, rushed, or embarrassed. They want the problem to stop.
The data behind this is also significant. Lloyds Consumer Digital Index estimates around 6.0 million people cannot recognise what online content may not be trustworthy, and around 15.9 million adults could benefit from improving their online safety. That is not a small edge case. It is millions of people using the same digital services as everyone else, but with less confidence about what to trust and what to do next.
We already talk a lot about user-centred design, and that is a good thing. But on its own, it is not enough. If the same kinds of people decide which users to research, what questions to ask, and what "good" looks like, you can still end up designing for a narrow version of solutions for end users. Diverse teams make user-centred design stronger because they widen what gets noticed early, before problems reach users.
How Organisations Can Maximise the Benefit
If we want the next generation of tech to be more talent diverse, organisations need to be intentional about how people get in, how they progress, and whether their voices shape decisions. This includes:
Widening the front door. Not everyone starts in the same place. Some come through university, others through apprenticeships, and many through different careers. Hiring should focus less on where someone studied and more on what they can do: explain something clearly, improve a messy process, and think through where a user might get stuck.
Making progression clear and fair. Bringing people in is only the first step. If advancement depends on fitting an unspoken mould, diversity will shrink over time. Clear role expectations, visible career paths, and flexibility at senior levels help talented people stay and grow.
Making sure different voices influence decisions. Diversity only improves outcomes if it has influence. Look at who gets high-profile work and who is asked for input early. If it is always the same few names, you will keep building services around the same assumptions.
Bottom Line
For me, diverse talent is not just a fairness issue. It is a quality issue. If digital services are meant to serve wide audiences, the individuals and teams building them should reflect a wider range of experiences. Supporting the next generation means widening routes in, enabling progression, and ensuring more voices shape decisions.
About the campaign
In our pursuit to shape a more equitable future, our March TechTogether campaign will focus on supporting the next generation by joining the National Careers Week campaign, empowering women in tech, advancing equity by design, and evolving the landscape of online safety.
Career related industry insights:
Other opportunities to get involved:
Other related insights:
Authors
Edward Howes Gonzalez
Edward Howes Gonzalez, Senior Digital Transformation Consultant at UBDS Digital, explains how widening routes into tech improves services for users.
