A newly established Community Interest Company (CIC), led by former Nuvias executive Ian Kilpatrick, is on a mission to address the skills gap in the IT sector and foster diversity.
The Tech Channel Ambassadors (TCA) is designed to spotlight IT career opportunities for students, career switchers, and those re-entering the workforce, aiming to fill an estimated 100,000 job openings in the UK's IT channel.
The TCA is rallying the industry — including vendors, distributors, and service providers — to support this initiative as part of their ESG strategies.
To bring this vision to life, TCA is mobilising younger industry professionals to visit schools as ambassadors, showcasing the IT channel as a vibrant career path and directly engaging with students.
The organisation promises comprehensive support in content, delivery, and engagement, with a particular focus on inclusivity, reaching out to underrepresented groups such as LGBTQ+, BAME, neurodiverse individuals, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
In addition to Kilpatrick (pictured), the leadership team behind the CIC includes Crayon MD Hayley Mooney; Distology CEO Hayley Roberts; Westcoast Executive Director Alex Tatham; Rubrik's Director of Channels and Alliances Lisa Roberts; Rebecca Monk, Chief People Officer, Softcat; and STEM champion Wendy Shore, EA to the Chief Revenue Officer, AssetLogic.
"We need more people in the IT industry, particularly women, and feedback is saying to get youngsters interested in the industry as early as possible - from primary school level," stated Kilpatrick.
"We have had a shortage of talent for decades and there is a continual stress point with companies paying money to hire and retain talent, followed by churn and then repeating the cycle. This impacts remuneration at all points in the business chain which then negatively impacts growth and profits.
"What we need is a channel-wide strategy that goes down to schools and up to government and NGO levels. We have to make the message heard that our industry is an area where you can do great things.
"As a multi-billion-pound industry – including vendors, distributors, VARs, SIs and service providers – we have all the capabilities to address the awareness and inclusiveness issues to resolve this."
Kilpatrick asserts that to effectively raise awareness about career opportunities, the channel must extend its reach beyond universities to include schools at Key Stage Two, Three, and Four levels.
"We have seen that students often self-exclude because they say they are not great at maths and science, but you don't have to excel at those subjects to get into the channel," added Kilpatrick. "There are huge career prospects around sales, marketing, customer experience, logistics, and way more. The possibilities are endless. They just need to know this."
The TCA plans to collaborate with school career advisors, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), government entities, and NGOs to expand its network and increase awareness.
