The UK Technology Sector has long had a reputation for failing to grow global technology empires but a new report focuses on how government can help.
The Scale-Up report has a list of 12 ideas which it believes will help the booming tech start up sector turn out more global companies to rival Silicon Valley giants such as google and Facebook.
Among its recommendations are several that involve public help including the provision of national data on scale ups, public bodies being evaluated on how they help scale up firm, and a ministerial appointment with responsibility to fill the ‘scale up gap.’
One area that has been identified as stopping tech start ups from scaling up is the struggle for attracting talent – especially overseas talent with the report saying a special ‘scale up visa’ should be available from the Home Office for company’s needing talent.
The department of Education and Local Enterprise Partnerships should be doing more to link firms with students while syllabuses should include greater education on what it takes to scale up.
The report’s author is a non-exec director of the London Stock Exchange. Sherry Coutu’s recommendations include closing the finance gap for fast growing companies through more collaboration between government and business.
