Our partnership with Alkemy: Recruiting at SOUTHWORKS part 4

Last year we started working with Alkemy, a company that provides training for people from all backgrounds who are fresh out of schooling and want to get into our industry. So far, the journey has been a fruitful one, bringing benefits for SOUTHWORKS as a company and our teams.

Alkemy aims to close the gap for trainee developers by getting them job ready. After an initial screening to determine their current level, they learn skills like communication, teamwork, and coding. Working with Alkemy is important for us as we want to invest in the future of the sector – there’s plenty of talent out there, but due to a lack of experience or reputation, they need someone to give them that first opportunity. By building that bridge for them, we’re helping to accelerate the process of closing the skills gap in the market, benefiting the individuals we hire, the software industry, and society at large while also bringing certified talent into our teams.

SOUTHWORKS has always been committed to helping trainees build their careers, and we feel we’re in an ideal position to help them hone their talent. Our partnership with Alkemy all started when I met with somebody I knew who works at the company. We want SOUTHWORKS to be a place where people with raw talent but limited industry experience can grow and develop. We’ve always trusted in talent, and we have a track record of nurturing people who have it – the challenge is guiding them to fulfill their potential by giving them the tools and experience they need to become top professionals, and this is a matter of time and dedication. Essentially, someone needs to be willing to take a chance on that raw talent, and that’s the part we want to play. Everyone here had to start somewhere, and most of us got into this career thanks to someone sticking their neck out to give us our big break, so we know what it’s like!

As well as supporting talented individuals and the industry, we’ve also experienced positive outcomes as a business through working with Alkemy. The main one is that we’ve found lots of brilliant people who were very raw to begin with, but who through coaching are now fantastic professionals, a credit to SOUTHWORKS, and developing an impressive profile in the industry. It’s also given us the chance to tap into budding talent in the emerging generations. When it comes to that age-old question in our industry of “build vs. buy”, we want to have the best possible teams to serve our clients – and part of that is building our own talent pool from the ground up, applying our own principles and ways of working. Our partnership with Alkemy has put us firmly on that path.

The benefit for our teams is that we get to connect with people we wouldn’t otherwise meet; people who increase our diversity and expand our pool of ideas. With traditional recruitment, a lack of experience on the applicant’s CV is often a major sticking point. We’ve made a commitment to support this up-and-coming talent, focusing on their potential rather than where they are today and helping them work towards becoming fully fledged professionals in this tough industry.

Want to know more? Check out Alkemy at https://www.alkemy.org/.

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