Nearly three years since the launch of the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review (STER), the government has issued an update on the progress of some of the key recommendations.
Published this week, the update examines Scotland’s technology environment in three major areas: education, infrastructure, and investment.
Reflecting on the changing ecosystem, the update also reviews the various entry barriers to the tech industry, and sets out several future next steps to achieve its goals.
Here are five key takeaways from the government’s recent update.
Education
A major initiative in Scotland has been to improve the digital skills of young people, and the formulation of STACS, the Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science organisation, champions this.
Partnering with the University of Glasgow, STACS is working to promote computer science in schools by focusing on upskilling teachers.
STACS formed a Computing Science Teacher Reference group made up of current teachers from a variety of backgrounds.
To build teacher confidence in computer science, tutorials, in-person events, and short videos will be delivered to teachers, with a full-scale roll out of the plan in 2023.
Teachers will be able to access new resources, and the government has invested over £1 million in hardware for schools.
Secondary schools can also apply for a fund for grants up to £2,500 each.
STER has also taken note of the glaring gender gap in computer science education, with 84% of students studying any higher computing science at any given year being male.
To tackle this, the government is working with the Improving Gender Balance and Equalities team at Education Scotland to address the gender imbalance.
Recognising the role of extracurricular activities, STER awarded £100,000 to Digital Xtra to provide grants to organisations delivering extra-curricular technology activities for young people.
To meet worker demand, STER has invested over £4 million since 2020 into reskilling programmes.
These include the Digital Start Fund, which supports people on low incomes and benefits, and the Digital Skills Pipeline, which has beginner and advanced coding courses.
Code Your Future, another training organisation which focuses on helping vulnerable people like refugees, has received grant funds to provide people with the skills and networks to progress in education and employment.
In the future, the Digital Economy Skills Action Plan for Scotland will outline the activity that will best support the needs of the digital economy going forward, aligning with the recommendations from STER and NSET.
Infrastructure
The government has already invested £1 million into the Ecosystem Fund, which launched in October 2021 to support the community elements of the tech ecosystem in Scotland.
Over 30 projects were granted funding; projects ranged from trips to Silicon Valley, a programme by Female Founder Squad to encourage women-led startups, and Scottish Games Week.
In the future, STER recognises the need to consider more carefully how to support smaller-scale organisations and how to use funding to address entry and opportunity barriers.
£42 million has also been invested to support Scottish startups through the national TechScaler network, delivered by CodeBase.
The Techscaler network will offer free mentorship and education to any and all interested tech startups in Scotland.
The Highlands and Islands has been in discussions with CodeBase to deliver an operating model to the region, ensuring that Techscaler support will be available across the whole of Scotland, including its more rural and remote regions.
Similarly, the South of Scotland Enterprise has been developing an Entrepreneurial Roadmap to support potential scale-up enterprises and will help local businesses connect with programmes like the proposed Techscaler hub in Dumfries.
Scottish Enterprise has also established a five-year programme, the Digital Scale-Up Level-Up, which aims to improve the digital tech scale-up businesses in Scotland in both quality and quantity.
Specifically, the programme aims to increase digital innovation, working with stakeholders to establish regional action plans, develop market opportunities and attract international talent.
Investment
Based on initial recommendations outlined in the STER, the Scottish Government has made progress in several key areas affecting investment in digital startups and innovation.
Progress has been made in establishing a new Series A fund, which is one of the major hurdles startups face on their funding journey.
The government is working to develop a new £150 million fund for Scottish businesses in partnership with the British Business bank to address gaps in growth capital supply.
A new fund for female-founded companies in Scotland is being delivered through a partnership with Investing Women Angles and the Scottish National Investment Bank.
The Scottish Government plans on developing more investment avenues to support businesses and startups to create the best possible funding environment for growth.
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Barriers of entry
Upon reflection since the Logan report, the Scottish Government is addressing barriers to entry into the tech sector as a priority in their review.
The Stewart Review has already been launched for the entirety of the UK to examine the barriers causing the under-representation of women in enterprise, and the Scottish government has committed to responding to the report’s recommendations in 2023.
It also says that applications for the TechScaler programme will have “diversity and inclusion at its heart”.
Companies led by women and minorities will be prioritised in their application process in order to help remove barriers and make up for under-representation.
These companies will also be offered extra support as they may face greater challenges due to the lack of diversity and inclusion in the industry.
In an effort to remove unconscious bias, recruitment processes have been redesigned, with application reviews maintaining anonymity and job adverts changing to remove masculine-coded words.
Next steps
The review listed some major next steps it hopes to achieve to meet its goals. Applications for the Teccscaler network are currently open to startups in Scotland.
The government also plans on delivering computing science teacher upskilling and recruitment initiatives as outlined in the report.
Overall, the government wants to bring all of its entrepreneurship work – including publishing the Stewart Review, developing more investment vehicles, and delivering entrepreneurship initiatives in colleges and universities – under a single national framework to establish Scotland as a leading startup nation.
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