About the project
Tech Talent Champions is a joint project by TechNative Digital and Sussex Innovation, funded by UK Government through Innovate UK as part of the TechFirst programme. One aim, shared by everyone involved: real junior tech jobs, created here in Sussex.
Sussex InnovationWho we are
Sussex Innovation
The University of Sussex's innovation hub leads the project: employer activation across its three-decade network of Sussex businesses, and overall programme governance, marketing and finance.
TechNative Digital
Sussex digital skills specialists lead delivery: the hackathons, the matching service, the talent platform behind this site, candidate and employer support throughout, and the talent development pipelines from bootcamp to sustained role.
Together, as Tech Talent Champions, we exist to make the first junior tech hire the easiest hire a Sussex business ever makes.
The national picture: TechFirst
TechFirst is the UK government's national technology skills programme, delivered by Innovate UK (part of UK Research and Innovation) on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Its TechLocal strand funds partnerships across the UK with one clear purpose: connecting local talent to local tech jobs in the technologies that matter most to the country's future, including AI, cybersecurity, quantum, semiconductors, engineering biology and advanced connectivity. The focus is squarely on entry-level opportunity: creating genuine junior roles, not just training courses, so that the people learning these skills locally get to build their careers locally too.
Our part: the Sussex project
Sussex has trained, capable people who can't get a first professional role, and SMEs who want junior talent but can't absorb the cost and risk alone. Our TechLocal project closes that gap. Between July 2026 and March 2027 we will activate Sussex employers as Tech Talent Champions, validate candidates through practical, CV-free assessment, and support Sussex employers to turn placements into sustained junior roles in AI, data and cyber, with inclusion designed in from the start. Every part of the model, from the hackathons to the funding navigation, exists to make the first junior hire easy enough that it becomes a habit.
Tech Talent Champions is delivered in partnership by TechNative Digital and Sussex Innovation, and funded by UK Government through Innovate UK as part of the TechFirst programme.
How it works
One journey, end to end, with a named human supporting both sides throughout. This is the flow we would map in detail at the workflow workshop.
Post your opportunity
A role, placement or apprenticeship, shaped around your real business headaches. Nothing starts without a genuine opportunity.
Sign the Charter, post your role
Three commitments, and your business is showcased as a Charter signatory with first access to validated talent. Champion status is earned when you hire.
Validate through real challenges
Candidates prove what they can do in role-aligned hackathons and practical assessments. No CV sifting, no bias, just capability.
Meet at the hackathon
Challenges are designed around clusters of posted roles. You watch candidates work, then receive a shortlist of up to five whose profile also unlocks your best funding.
Hire: now you're a Champion
The badge, register entry and promotion arrive the day someone starts. A dedicated success manager supports employer and new hire from onboarding onwards, and your Tech Talent Development Plan is built with a specialist during the placement.
Convert, and be celebrated
The goal: a sustained junior role. When your placement becomes a permanent hire, your story gets told across the region: case study, socials, the lot.
Founding Champions
A small group of respected Sussex employers signed before launch, because they believe junior talent is a business decision worth making. Their logos and "why we signed" stories appear here from launch week.
Announcing at launch
"Why we signed" quote and logo to follow.
Announcing at launch
"Why we signed" quote and logo to follow.
Announcing at launch
"Why we signed" quote and logo to follow.
Tech Talent Champion stories
Every Tech Talent Champion has a story worth telling: the business that modernised, the career-changer who got their shot, the team that grew. We tell those stories loudly.
The manufacturer that put AI on the factory floor
A family-run engineering firm knew its quality inspection data held answers nobody had time to find. Through a Tech Talent Champions hackathon they set the challenge, watched a career-changer with a manufacturing background solve it live, and offered an eight-week placement on the spot. Six months on, she runs their machine-vision quality dashboard, and scrap rates are down 12%.
"We didn't hire a junior. We hired the person who showed us what our own data could do, and the grant meant the placement barely touched the budget."
The agency that stopped waiting for seniors
A Brighton studio had a senior-heavy team and a hiring market that wouldn't budge. Instead of waiting, they signed the Charter, took the Tech Talent Development Plan, and restructured one workflow around a validated bootcamp graduate. The Youth Jobs Grant covered most of the first year's risk. Their junior developer shipped to production in week three.
"The development plan changed how we think about growing our own people, not just this hire but the next five."
The cyber firm that found its analyst at a hackathon
A Cyber Essentials assessor needed a junior SOC analyst but had been burned by CV-led hiring. As a hackathon judge they watched candidates triage a simulated incident, and one recent graduate stood out for calm process over bravado. Hired as an apprentice: £2,000 incentive, 100% funded training, zero employer NI. He passed his first client audit unassisted within the year.
"Judging the hackathon was the best screening process we never had to design."
We'll help you tell yours
Every Tech Talent Champion gets their story told, professionally and at no cost: written case study, photography, social assets, press outreach through the programme's channels, and your badge to anchor it. Your hire becomes your best marketing.
Become a Tech Talent Champion