A UK INFORMATION technology consultancy, that launched in Scotland last summer, has plans to grow its Glasgow team by 50% this year, despite identifying a challenging skills gap north of the border.

Since opening its hub on Bath Street last August, BJSS, which said it is the UK’s largest privately-owned IT consultancy, has doubled its Scottish workforce.

Leeds-headquartered BJSS, which has offices in the UK and the US, has more than 1,000 employees, a turnover of just over £100 million and is a recent winner of the Queen's Award for Enterprise.

It has appointed Laura Casci as head of delivery for Scotland to increase its Scottish footprint by growing its employee numbers by at least 20 in 2018 and its client base.

Ms Casci, who started out as a software tester and has more than 20 years’ experience, joined from consultancy firm Certeco.

BJSS has signed up Disclosure Scotland as a client to deliver a large-scale IT transformation project and the firm is targeting other public sector organisations and financial services firms.

The firm has also committed to the Scottish Business Pledge and said it plans to develop skills within Scotland’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

Ms Casci said that the biggest challenge for BJSS in Scotland is securing talent, partly because large firms have invested in IT in Scotland and taken a lot of the best people. BJSS is trying to mitigate this issue by looking at a range of options, such as modern apprentices and its own academy scheme.

Ms Casci explained: “We’re looking for good, experienced technical consultants to help shape the new projects that come along. But there are some skill shortages in Scotland in terms of sheer numbers.

“There are some fabulous people around in the market place and we’re trying to attract them and get them through the door. But we’re also looking at other options. We run academy-type projects where we take on graduates down south and we have a great opportunity to do that in Scotland where we have some of the best universities in the world.

“We are also looking at modern apprenticeships and seeing how we can use that to build our staff and give back to the community of Scotland.”

Through a partnership with Code Clan, an organisation dedicated to improving the digital skills of professionals across the region, BJSS said it will help to identify and train people for permanent roles in the organisation. It has already hired its first person through Code Clan, a maths graduate who completed a conversion course.

And as part of a community investment partnership with Turinglab, which teaches fundamental coding skills to British school children, it will deliver free coding lessons to children from less-advantaged family backgrounds in Glasgow.

Ms Casci said: “Through Turinglab we want to try to get youngsters who are maybe not from the most advantaged backgrounds to try to think about a career in tech. We want to show what opportunities coding can bring. Some kids might think it’s all about PowerPoint and spreadsheets, but there is actually some really exciting stuff you can do in tech. The benefit for Scotland and BJSS is that maybe some more of those youngsters will move into tech.”

She added: “We are not only committed to helping Scottish companies resolve their most complex IT and business issues but also ensuring that we continue to develop the talent to do so.”