Webinar: Diverse talent, skills and technical education in Wales

Join the BCS Wales Hub online on 2025-05-07 at 11:00 AM to explore the diverse talent, skills, and technical education in Wales

Speaker

Julia Adamson MBE FBCS CITP
Kanishka Narayan MP
Professor Tom Crick FBCS 

Agenda

The BCS Wales Hub is bringing the community together to raise awareness of the skills shortages in Wales and understand how organisations, recruiters, academia, and anyone working in the technical space can reduce the skills gap, increase the talent entering the profession and increase the digital skills across the region.

This webinar will focus on the above through the lens of education and policy from Professor Tom Crick MBE and Kanishka Narayan MP, and hosted by Julia Adamson MBE.

About the speaker

Julia Adamson MBE FBCS CITP

Managing Director, Education and Public Benefit at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

Julia’s mission at BCS is to give every young person the digital skills they need to succeed in life and work. Under her leadership, the Computing at School (CAS) teachers’ network has grown in influence and now has over 25,000 teacher members. BCS’ Barefoot scheme, which supports primary teachers with learning materials and lesson plans, has so far reached 3.3 million children across the UK. Julia played a lead role in establishing and managing the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), an £84 million government-funded programme to upskill teachers to deliver world-class education in computing in schools. In 2023, Julia was awarded an MBE, for Services to Education.

Kanishka Narayan MP 

Kanishka is the Labour MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, after a career bridging public service, technology and finance, working in roles across Silicon Valley, the civil service and the city.

In government, Kanishka advised ministers on domestic public policy, as Senior Adviser at the Cabinet Office and as Expert Adviser to Britain’s Environment Secretary. He also advised the Labour Party frontbench as Head of Tech Policy.

In business, Kanishka advised and invested in climate and fintech start-ups across Europe and the US, and previously advised FTSE boards, sovereign finance ministries and start-up founders at Lazard.

Kanishka grew up and lives in South Wales, studied at Oxford and Stanford universities, and is passionate about social mobility and social justice. He is determined for the UK to embrace its future as a global leader in technology and innovation, harnessing growth that works for everyone: strengthening communities, restoring dignity, and lifting people up through opportunity.

Professor Tom Crick

Professor Tom Crick MBE is Professor of Digital Policy at Swansea University and Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Whilst his disciplinary background is in computer science, his interests sit at the research-policy-practice interface, identifying and addressing domain problems with broad digital, data-driven and computational themes, and especially focusing on the impact on people, communities, heritage and culture.

Alongside his academic work, Tom has held senior advisory roles with BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT (including as Vice-President from 2017-2020), National Infrastructure Commission for Wales, Nesta, and Ofcom, as well as non-executive roles in the utilities, engineering/manufacturing, and health sectors.

Our events are for adults aged 16 years and over.

BCS is a membership organisation. If you enjoy this event, please consider joining BCS. You’ll be very welcome. You’ll receive access to many exclusive career development tools, an introduction to a thriving professional community and also help us Make IT Good For Society. Join BCS today: https://www.bcs.org/membership/events.

Our events are for adults aged 16 years and over.

BCS is a membership organisation. If you enjoy this event, please consider joining BCS. You’ll be very welcome. You’ll receive access to many exclusive career development tools, an introduction to a thriving professional community and also help us Make IT Good For Society. Join BCS today

This event is brought to you by:

BCS Wales Hub

Visit: https://www.bcs.org/membership-and-registrations/member-communities/bcs-hubs/bcs-wales-hub/