Building a more inclusive industry starts with engaging young talent

Over and over again, throughout my career — which has morphed from waiting tables to temp recruiting to web content to UX — I've been told it's about who you know. Even now, leading a team, I find that hiring great people and attracting new business opportunities often comes down to relationships.

But initiating and nurturing these relationships isn't equally easy for everyone, and the playing field isn't level to begin with.

We know that our industry, past and present, has a diversity problem. In the UK, 52% of adults working in the creative industry are from high socio-economic backgrounds, compared to 38% across all industries. And sadly, although three-quarters of young adults in the UK are interested in exploring careers in the industry, 42% felt unable to do so because they believe it’s too hard to break into the industry. 

While this feels uncomfortable and unjust, it’s also bad for design-based businesses. Diverse design teams are instrumental in fostering innovation and creativity, ultimately leading to the development of better products. In fact, McKinsey research shows that companies with more diverse leadership teams are more likely to outperform their less diverse peers on profitability. 

So where to begin? For us, the starting point is our talent pipeline — as an industry, we are quite simply not doing enough to pave the way for young people from underrepresented backgrounds to get a foothold. Building that pipeline requires active engagement, tangible investment and often, partnership with local organisations and nonprofits working directly with the young people we want to build relationships with. 

Flipside, a product design bootcamp for young Londoners, is one example. Founded in 2018 by a group of digital agencies including Beyond, Made by Many, and usTwo, in collaboration with east London charity The Good Growth Hub, the programme is designed to help young people with an interest in product design to break into the industry.

The programme runs annually and leads a cohort of Flipsiders through twelve weeks of learning. The curriculum includes the hard skills of end-to-end product design delivered by agencies, as well as soft skills around networking, preparing a CV and portfolio, and what to expect when interviewing. 

More importantly, it provides ample opportunity to build relationships. Beyond just networking, Flipsiders and agency folks get to actively collaborate and shape work together and share ideas and perspectives.

At the end of the programme, Flipsiders interview for a number of internships available with the participating agencies, providing them with that critical first step towards a career in digital. And everyone in the programme leaves with a strong network of agency leaders and mentors to help them take their next steps.

We’ve just wrapped Flipside 2024, which culminated in a showcase in Hackney Wick where each Flipsider got the chance to pitch and present their responses to briefs ranging across environmental sustainability, health and wellbeing and the skills gap.

Ideas ran the gamut from an app to improve children’s teeth-brushing habits to a training platform designed for hospitality workers to make the most of commuting travel time.

One Flipsider, Fahmida, had a background in healthcare and has always had a passion for illustration. Through Flipside, she now hopes to “bring them all together and see if I can find a role somewhere that will take the skills I've had in the past and then the new ones I have now and find that perfect space for me.” Music to my ears as someone who also needed to explore a few career options before finding the one that stuck. 

Practice-based programmes and partnerships like this are critical to addressing our industry’s diversity challenge. Alongside Flipside, we’re also proud supporters of BRIDGEGOOD, a San Francisco-based nonprofit dedicated to improving access to professional opportunities for under-resourced students and job seekers of colour. Still, there aren’t enough opportunities yet, and, as an industry, we need to do better. 

But for today, I’ll gladly take a moment to appreciate the immense amount of sweat equity, bold creativity and dynamic range this year’s Flipsiders have demonstrated. And I hope the relationships formed will help them unlock the opportunities they so rightfully deserve.