Tiara Award win

This prestigious award recognises our success in engaging with emerging talent and was awarded to us for the success of our Technology Academy’s partnership with Lloyds Banking Group.

About the partnership

Working towards a more inclusive technology industry is our mission at Bright Network Technology Academy. Lloyds Banking Group came to us to help them work towards meeting three key objectives:

To increase the proportion of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic employees across Lloyds Banking Group
To introduce high-quality employees from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds who have the the potential to become senior leaders.

To help Lloyds Banking Group to take more tangible steps towards achieving their 2020 Race Action Plan
To create meaningful change, Bright Network Technology Academy created a three-point strategy that would:

• Engage young, ambitious future developers from diverse backgrounds
• Champion diverse talent through industry-wide platforms
• Build a playbook to share best practice for other technology leader

To put this strategy into action we focused on Lloyds Banking Group’s technology department, and utilised the power of our own proprietary Bright Network platform to drive results.

Starting with our strong community of over 700,000 students, we handpicked a cohort of diverse high-potential graduates with the creativity and curiosity to become future technology change-makers. This selected cohort was made up of 68% women and 13% Black Heritage. A total of 82% of this cohort came from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background.

Via our bespoke 12-week accelerator programme, we equipped this cohort of trainee future software engineers with the fundamental technical and collaborative skills to enable them to become future tech leaders. Once they completed this course, we placed the candidates directly into Lloyds Banking Group technology teams.

Peter Crouch, Head of Engineering at Lloyds Banking Group said:

“We’re delighted to be partnering with Bright Network to grow a diverse talent pool who are working at the cutting edge of modern engineering.”

Oli Ekwalla, Bright Network Technology Academy Graduate said:

“As somebody who studied Chemistry at university, the Bright Network Technology Academy has turbo-charged my career in the tech industry. The initial BNTA bootcamp taught me in-demand technical and soft-skills which I have then been able to apply in my role as a Bright Network Technology Consultant based at Lloyds Banking Group. The opportunity to get hands-on experience - with the continued support from the Bright Network Technology Academy community - has been something that has been extremely valuable and rewarding.”

James Uffindell, Founder & CEO at Bright Network said:

“We started Bright Network Technology Academy just over a year ago to bring together the next generation, equipping them with the skills, highest-quality training and opportunity to become our future technology change-makers With just 2% of the UK tech workforce from a Black Heritage background and over 40% of Black Heritage graduates feel their background is a hindrance – radical change is needed.

That’s why we’re thrilled to be working with such important businesses like Lloyds Banking Group to bring about meaningful change.”

This latest awards adds to our success in 2022, which has seen us also win:

• Outstanding Employer and Supplier Recruitment Partnership with EY from the Institute of Student Employers
• Workplace Solution of the Year with EY at the Tiara Talent Tech Star Awards 2022
• Learning Solution of the Year with Lloyds Banking Group at the Tiara Talent Tech Star Awards 2022