Sunderland Software City expands with drive for more regional businesses and jobs

Sunderland Software City is building on its 13-year experience to build a new Enterprise Team and expand other departments to drive forward regional digital tech sector growth.

The new Enterprise Team will focus on supporting the start up and growth rates of digital tech businesses in the region through developing and delivering a series of pilot activities.

The launch of the Enterprise Team is paired with the creation of 10 new jobs – each bringing something to this new team.

“There is a real desire across the region to create a pipeline of new digital tech businesses and we’re working with a number of partners to make this a reality” says David Dunn, CEO.

“To bring this from plan to fruition we are recruiting a broad number of new roles. We’ve deliberately made many of the jobs suitable for people who never thought they could help tech sector growth – such as our engagement specialists, who reach into communities not normally linked to tech business creation.”

The drive for new digital tech businesses in the North East echoes the national agenda to ‘fuel a new era of start-ups and scale-ups’ and ‘levelling-up digital prosperity across the UK’ as part of the government’s 10 tech priorities.

The new Enterprise Team will focus specifically on helping people explore and advance their digital business ideas. This support will range from raising awareness about the possibilities of starting a tech business to delivering tailored business support.

In addition, Sunderland Software City is expanding its other departments with new roles to deliver more activities within the wider tech ecosystem. Activities include helping non-digital businesses adopt technology through the Digital Pathfinders programme and raising awareness of STEM careers within schools.

To support local people to fill vacancies within the tech sector, Sunderland Software City has also partnered with the new Department for Education’s Digital Bootcamp pilot which aims to support over 500 people to build their digital tech skills and access jobs in new and existing regional companies.

“The Digital Bootcamp project is a true step change initiative and is an opportunity for individuals from all backgrounds to access employment in the burgeoning regional sector” said Jill McKinney, Head of Skills at Sunderland Software City.

It is hoped that the work of Software City, delivered alongside other regional stakeholders, will create 2,000 new businesses by 2026, bringing thousands of new digital tech sector jobs to the region.

Seven of the enterprise roles are currently live on the Software City website, with opportunities in the wider team following shortly. Alongside the published vacancies, Software City is hosting one-to-ones for anyone curious about the opportunities within the new Enterprise Team. You can find these on Eventbrite.