80,000 Scots now employed in tech

A new survey has revealed that 80,000 Scots (one in 25) now work in the technology industry, with more than 1,000 works places in the sector.

The data has been produced by Scotland IS, which has released its annual Scottish Technology Industry Survey, revealing the staggering growth in Scotland’s tech sector.

Reacting to the findings, Richard Higgs, CEO of Scottish cloud hosting and data centre provider brightsolid, said: “This survey confirms what we in the industry already have long believed – that Scotland’s tech sector is going from strength to strength. With a talented and tech savvy population, and a government that has rightly placed emphasis on innovation to further Scotland’s digital future, the economy is reaping the rewards. The question now is how to nurture our growing tech industry, keep it here, and turn Scotland into an IT force on a global scale?

“Crucial to furthering Scotland’s digital ambitions is investment in infrastructure. A situation that needs to be addressed is national telecom provision – evidenced by the fact that the city of Stockholm has more connectivity than the whole of Scotland put together! As this survey shows, Scottish businesses are pursuing innovation, but they need a core underlying infrastructure to keep up with the demands that digital growth requires.

“With one in 25 Scots now in a tech job, it has also never been more important to encourage young people into science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). In order to feed Scotland’s growing IT industry, we need home grown talent with the ability to drive innovation. The education system needs to inform young people of the new skills they’ll need in the future, and inspire them to develop these skills. Scotland then needs to arm itself to fight a good fight in what has been called ‘the war on talent’ in the tech industry to make sure our next generation of innovators and coders don’t leave for the pull of bigger cities.”