Partnering with Agent Academy to find future talent for emerging jobs in the North West of England

We’re proud to work with social enterprise Agent Academy to help support creation of 700 new jobs.

Following our recent announcement to support the UK’s levelling up agenda by creating up to 700 new jobs across the UK, particularly in the North, CGI has joined forces with Agent Academy – an award-winning social enterprise based in the North West of England that provides industry-designed training for people to secure emerging jobs – in order to deliver new opportunities for young people who are underrepresented in the sector.

Our new partnership has opened up a pathway into careers within CGI for young people, who previously felt ‘locked out’ of industry and comes in response to growing industry demand for a skilled workforce, especially in emerging new digital roles, at a time when demand for tech professionals in the UK has increased by 10% in the first six months of 2021, according to new research. This new approach gives CGI the chance to discover future talent, by opening opportunities to young people who wouldn’t otherwise know that these careers exist.

Earlier this year, with Agent Academy, we set a brief for 20 programme participants to work on, for the duration of a 12-week programme. The brief challenged a group of young people to come up with digital innovations ideas to improve the lives of other young people in the North West. To help solve their brief, the learners gathered insight and expert advice from the senior leaders they met. Their findings have been presented at an event attended by regional and industry leaders. CGI has also committed to recruit new hires from Agent Academy following the completion of the programme.

Paul Buxton, Senior Vice President Consulting Services at CGI, said:

“At CGI, encouraging the next generation of tech talent is hugely important to us and this is demonstrated by our range of apprenticeship and graduate opportunities. We’ve also been looking at how we can attract a talented, diverse workforce who may be struggling to secure the opportunities they deserve. Therefore, we are proud to be partnering with values-led social enterprises like Agent Academy to deliver on this. We are committed to offering meaningful employment opportunities and are excited to see the unique perspectives of the group and the ideas that they develop whilst with us.”

Zoe Wallace, Director at Agent Academy, said:

“Many opportunities are hidden to the young people we work with; they may have not had exposure or access to the plethora of careers that exist. We know that there are plenty of bright, talented young people, who employers across the region would love to meet. Our role at Agent Academy is to develop this talent and connect them with their future employers, simultaneously supporting businesses to find a new, diverse workforce they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. We create an environment that challenges young people to learn quickly; introducing them to industry leaders and giving them new skills, all of which lead to meaningful, long lasting, employment. Our partnership with CGI demonstrates that there is a need for a bespoke approach to recruiting local talent and we are so happy with the successful outcomes that we’ve already seen from this programme.”

For more information, read the full press release.

For more information about CGI’s relationship with pro-manchester, please contact [email protected]