Corecom Tech Academy has been shortlisted for The Lloyds Scale Up Trailblazer Business of the Year Award at the 2026 Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards, recognition for a specialist talent provider whose expansion has been among the most rapid in the UK digital skills market.
The company exists to solve a double problem for British employers: too few digital skills, and too little diversity among the people who hold them. Its answer is the Recruit Train Deploy model, under which Associates are hired into paid employment, given training aligned to industry needs and supported with ongoing development as they move into client teams. Recruitment deliberately reaches people underrepresented in technology, from women and global ethnic majority communities to career changers, neurodiverse individuals and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.
From two people to seventy-six
The scale of growth is striking. The Academy set out to create 60 new tech opportunities by 2025 and beat that target, according to the business, expanding from a team of 2 to 76 and placing more than 150 people into roles spanning software, data, platform and cloud, cyber security and business analysis, all while holding staff turnover under 5 per cent. Prolific North reported that the firm passed its original 60-role milestone with a turnover forecast in excess of £2 million, and TheBusinessDesk.com has covered its publicly stated goal of creating 1,000 tech roles across the UK.
Repeat business built on outcomes
Commercial momentum comes from employers returning for more. Corecom Tech Academy co-designs bespoke academies with industry-leading organisations to tackle critical skills shortages, and the business reports that this delivers strong employer outcomes, repeat business and a growing reputation as one of the UK’s most inclusive and socially driven tech academies. Wraparound support underpins those results: every Associate receives two years of pastoral care covering coaching, skills development, recognised certifications and wellbeing.
A differentiated position in the market
Inclusion doubles as the firm’s commercial edge. Where the UK tech sector reports diversity of around 28 per cent, the Academy’s cohorts show 61 per cent female representation, 42 per cent from global ethnic majority communities, 17 per cent neurodiversity and over half of Associates from low socio-economic backgrounds, figures reported by the business and covered by the Yorkshire Post, The Business Desk and Prolific North. It also gives back to the wider ecosystem, mentoring more than 1,300 students nationwide and backing events such as the Leeds Digital Ball, Leeds Digital Festival and Manchester Tech Fest.
That combination of pace, purpose and employer demand secured its place among the finalists for The Lloyds Scale Up Trailblazer Business of the Year Award. Winners will be revealed at the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards ceremony at Grosvenor House, London, on 10 November 2026.
