Grads are swapping the City for the tech scene—and post-Brexit Britain stands to benefit

Were there any raised eyebrows when UK students chose Google as their ‘most attractive employer’? For the seventh consecutive year, a survey of 40,000 students concluded that the tech giant

was the most desirable place to work for those studying business or STEM subjects. Even humanities and law students put Google in their top five. As for financial services, students weren’t

as enthusiastic as they have been in the past. Deloitte dropped two places and Morgan Stanley fell three.

A wealth of other studies and surveys suggest more or less the same thing. Financial services is out; tech is in. Students want flexibility, transparency and independence — something already

demonstrated by the trend towards co-working spaces and remote-working policies. There’s a perceptible shift away from ‘traditional roles’ associated with a particular subject choice, and a

rising interest in those powerful technology companies seeking not only young people with a good understanding of tech, but graduates with ‘soft skills’ as well.

Banking, it goes without saying, is one of the industries expected to be affected most acutely by Britain’s departure from the European Union, and indeed the Bank of England governor, Mark

Carney, has warned of a ‘catastrophic fallout’ in the event of a no-deal Brexit. That will be responsible at least in part for the decline in interest in financial services, as will the

perceived rigidity and stuffiness of financial institutions.

But Brexit can’t be blamed for everything — despite what some claim. Tech is the most exciting sector both globally and domestically, and London happens to be the third-largest tech hub in

the world. In May last year, the UK became the world’s top FinTech hub, and total venture capitalist investment in UK tech surpassed £6 billion over the course of 2018. In February this

year, the number of new technology companies launched in the UK rose by 14 percent of 2018, and that was distributed among almost every region. The UK created 13 ‘billion-dollar’ startups

over the course of the year. And though of course most startups fail, it’s suggestive of the health of the sector and the optimism surrounding it, that so many people are willing to make

businesses out of their ideas. In the last five years, we’ve grown the community of our tech-startup recruitment platform to 35,000 graduates and new startups are joining every day. In fact,

the UK’s thriving tech economy is growing at three times the rate of the economy as a whole; it isn’t so much that financial services are in decline but that tech is in the ascendency.

This shift in interest from financial services to tech is a good thing. Critical to the success of post-Brexit Britain will be its tech scene, and we would be wrong to assume that we don’t

have competition. Earlier this month, Quartz reported that Paris was pitching itself as ‘the next-best thing for startups’ and trying to seduce those founders spooked by Brexit or the cost

of living in Silicon Valley. Meanwhile Amsterdam, a city built on trade, is reaching across the channel and trying to steal London’s crown: startup founders say there are fewer obstacles in

the way of new companies.

It’s for this reason that we need our brightest and best going into the tech space. The UK has already enjoyed record-breaking investment in tech in 2019, and they will be the ones to

maintain the momentum. Despite the uncertainty, despite the gloom, Britain can thrive post-Brexit. But it will need a bold, creative and industrious tech scene in order to do it.

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