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London’s Tech City UK launches scheme to stake British claim as top technology nation

Tech City UK has today announced a new initiative to help digital technology businesses attract and secure top talent from outside the EU.

Based on direct feedback from the digital business community, the Tech Nation Visa Scheme has added four new qualifying criteria to ensure that the UK maintains its position as a globally competitive digital powerhouse.

The company, which Launched out of Shoreditch in 2010, has this year convened a range of consultation workshops with founders, CEOs and senior management of the digital business community to assess the barriers faced when attracting top talent from outside of the EU.

Gerard Grech, CEO, Tech City UK, explained: “Fast-growing digital technology businesses play a central role in ensuring the UK stays at the forefront of digital innovation and economic growth on the world stage. Based on the feedback from the tech community, the new Tech Nation Visa Scheme will prove to be a vital tool for companies that want to secure the high caliber people they need to quickly scale their product, service and operations.”

This direct community feedback has been crystallised into the addition of four new qualifying criteria for the UK’s technology sector:

1. Building UK Scale-ups:

As scale-ups become ever more crucial to the growth of the UK digital economy, as part of the consultation process, Tech City UK has included a specific provision to help companies to get the talent they need to scale quickly. Whether it’s expertise in taking a company to IPO or scaling a product internationally, or individuals with very specific technical knowledge, such as data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, developers operations or cyber security, the Tech Nation Visa Scheme will provide a scale-up fast-track route that will enable rapidly growing companies to access the right talent at the right time to smoothen their path to success.

2. Recognising ’Exceptional Promise’

The new Tech Nation Visa Scheme will now consider applications from individuals that demonstrate ‘Exceptional Promise’, a criterion that aims to open the route to a broader base of aspiring talent from outside the EU. This provision will facilitate companies in recruiting the highly skilled individuals needed to fill specific talent gaps.

3. Powering the Northern Powerhouse

The 2015 Tech Nation report found that over 170,000 people work in digital technology businesses across the North of England. The Tech Nation Visa Scheme will now include a fast-track applications procedure for digital businesses in the seven cities under the Tech North remit (Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Sunderland). Like Tech City UK, Tech North will now also provide a visa support service to offer guidance and advice to companies wanting to hire someone from overseas.

4. Recruiting Teams from Overseas:

Recognising that digital businesses often seek to recruit entire teams of exceptional individuals from outside the EU who have demonstrated success, a new revision to the Scheme will cater for this. From November 12, groups of up to five will be able to apply at once for consideration, allowing UK digital businesses to attract high calibre and high performing teams that have a proven track record of creativity, collaboration and commercial vision.

Commenting on the updated Scheme, Rt Hon Ed Vaizey MP, the Minister for the Digital Economy, said: “The Digital technology sector is a core building block of the Government’s plans to support an internationally competitive Northern Powerhouse as well as the UK’s leadership in digital innovation. Today’s announcement furthers that strategy. This new Visa Scheme will support fast growth digital businesses in their quest to bring the best and brightest to British shores as we continue to stake our claim as a Tech Nation on the global stage.”

Eileen Burbidge, Partner at Passion Capital and Chair of Tech City UK, added: “Engaging with the digital business community to ensure the Government is offering practical support to accelerate company growth is what Tech City UK is about, and these revisions to the visa programme address the highest priority for all company founders—that of growing and scaling a business with the best talent from around the world.”