The region’s five outstanding universities provide high quality graduates specialising in technology, computer science, data analytics, accounting and UX design – factors that are critical to the success of companies operating in the financial technology arena.
Durham University boasts rigorous training at the frontier of financial research together with a wide range of education provision in computer science, finance and accounting, and a MSc in Financial Technology and Banking. Specialisms include; Machine Learning in Finance, Textual Analysis, Marketplace Lending, Crowdfunding, Blockchain, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Decentralized Finance, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), Cryptocurrency and Stablecoins, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), Robo Advising and Automated Assert Management, Cyber Security and Regulation of FinTech. Durham is also home to a FinTech Society and the Institute of Advanced Research Computing and has close research links with Atom Bank.
14 centres of excellence including the National Innovation Centre for Data
Newcastle University is one of 14 centres of excellence for research into Cybersecurity as well as having a strong reputation for fintech and digital technology related courses. The University offers a Masters Degree Apprenticeship in Software Engineering, an MSc Degree Apprenticeship in Digital Technology Solutions, and several world class modules specialising in the theory and application of Data Science including specialisation in Artificial Intelligence. Newcastle University works hand-in-hand with the National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD), creating a partnership between industry and academia focussed on helping organisations acquire new skills, accelerate innovation and reap the benefits of data driven insight.
Aiming to deliver 50,000 newly skilled coders in the North East region by 2025
Colleges and universities in North East England are also working with industry to deliver courses that meet the skills demand for the tech sector. The North East Futures University Technical College (UTC), in Newcastle is helping to create the digital workforce of the future. The UTC has private sector backing from global companies with a North East presence including Accenture, HewlettPackard, Sage and Ubisoft.
The new Tech Talent Engine is another project, which aims to drive collaboration across employers and education providers to more clearly articulate the digital career pathways that are available to people within the region and support early-career and new-to-digital roles.
There are a number of tech “bootcamps” in the region, such as Northcoders, and One Digital Collective is an initiative delivered in association with Newcastle College, that aims to deliver 50,000 newly skilled coders in the North East region by 2025. This course is shaped and endorsed by employers who have contributed to the course content setting expectations of skills and capabilities required of applicants who will complete the training to be employment ready.
Newcastle, Northumbria, Teesside, Durham & Sunderland universities are also working together to design and deliver radical, cutting-edge UK digital skills education. The Institute of Coding offers sector leading expertise, training courses and advice, to prime new workers of the future, providing the region with a pool of highly skilled, highly trained workers.
Many of the new technology companies that land in our region also demonstrate their commitment to the sector by establishing independent training and programming accelerators to add to the talent pool.
