From coders to 3D designers, software testers to web designers and app creators, the job opportunities Cornwall's thriving tech sector offer are vast and varied - and demand for talented individuals does not look like it will slow down anytime soon.
Firms of all sizes are recruiting right left and centre - or more likely they are trying to recruit the right candidates but Cornwall is not the South East or London and the talent pool is not as deep.
"It can be difficult to recruit within the county," said Michael Todd, from Engineered Arts, the home of RoboThespian and one of the sponsors of this year's Cornwall EDGE Awards (Excellent in Digital, Gadgetry and Entrepreneurialism).
"That's why we're changing our tactic and have shifted from looking for the ready made article towards recruiting smart school leavers we can train in-house."
Read MoreMr Todd said most firms have no issues recruiting skilled individuals regardless of where they are from, and many in the sector have a diverse workforce generally blending Cornwall born and bred staff with British and foreign staff mainly from the EU.
"The tech sector remains a well paid sector," Mr Todd added. "Especially compared with some of Cornwall's other industries. It is thriving. It forms a huge part of the economy and I don't think we as a society are going to suddenly want less tech.
"It will keep growing. We will need more tech and that means coders and software engineers will continue to be in high demand."
Read More The 2017 Cornwall Edge AwardsEngineered Arts currently employs 17 staff and has room for two or three more in the short term. The Penryn company also has one apprentice and one intern on its payroll but that will grow too as the firm increasingly looks to recruit college or university students or even school leavers it can train up to suit its needs.
Craig Girvan and Toby Parkins, the co-founders of Headforwards (Image: Headforwards)Toby Parkins, co-founder and director of software company Headforwards and chairman of the industry group Tech South West, said: "Digital transformation is happening in every successful business. In order to achieve maximum success in this transformation the need for talent and culture are the key requirements.
"This means recruiting, training and retaining great, talented people is very important. The culture within an organisation is also of key importance.
"Companies need to be focusing on how to improve their internal cultures so that talented people can thrive, use their creativity to produce exceptionally brilliant work."
Read MoreHe added: "Cornwall is the perfect environment for businesses looking to drive forward and improve their talent and culture. This backdrop will enable Cornish businesses who are forward looking to move forward by both improving their employee opportunities whilst driving productivity upwards."
"With regard to specific skills, we are currently seeing a growing need for Microsoft development languages, in particular the language .net. As organisations utilise Office 365 and then more Sharepoint solutions, the natural progression is to increase their internal application development using .net.
The tech sector is booming in Cornwall and is recruiting hard - but only if you have the right skills (Image: Getty Images)"I'm not saying there will be a decline in open source but we're sensing that the pendulum has swung recently towards Python and this will therefore provide opportunities for .net developers. It should be emphasised that knowledge of three languages as a minimum should be encouraged with the harder C/C++ always being valuable.
"There is also evidence to show that some functional programming languages such as Go, Scala, may become increasingly important in the future."
Read More"Of course we need to be doing more to improve training within Cornwall, like people have been saying for decades. The reality though is even if 500 graduates a year were graduating in computing related subjects, we still wouldn't have the exact combination of specialisms and experience.
"Superfast Broadband has been brilliant for enabling tech businesses to thrive in Cornwall. The next step is to create ultra high speed hubs and physical spaces where tech businesses can work together with the wider business community to invent the innovative new applications and IT solutions that will take businesses forward into the future. In this way, the tech sector benefits together with other Cornish businesses."
Read MorePaul Massey, director and co-founder of Internet of Things company Bluefruit, said the firm employed 43 staff but was looking to recruit another 10.
He said: "We expect to grow by at least 50 per cent over the next 12 months.
"We are primarily looking for experienced software engineers in both embedded software and cloud computing – predominately C++ and C# programmers. But we are also looking for a range of other tech roles include test engineers and a sales engineer.
"The demand for these jobs is just going to keep growing. Businesses who invest in skills and training will thrive – those who don't will struggle."
How do you foster Cornwall's tech talent?Most companies, from Bluefruit Software in Pool to AI experts Hertzian in Truro, work increasingly closely with both Truro and Penwith College and Cornwall College as well as with Falmouth University and even some schools directly.
A Skills Hub has been developed as a new signposting service that offers business a free skills review and then matches them with the right skills and training provision, helping them develop their staff and grow their business at the same time.
But the training has to start in schools and there's a huge amount of work that's being done to ensure schools and colleges are getting kids involved in tech and making coding fun and interesting.
Truro and Penwith College, which is also supporting our EDGE Awards, and Cornwall College have been working on a programme to entice young people into the courses that will put them on a tech career path in Cornwall.
Several of Cornwall's leading technology companies are working closely with Cornwall's further education providers to create tailor-made courses that suit the needs of the industry.
Cornwall EDGE Awards 2017 sponsorsFalmouth University has made it its mission to be at the heart of the digital sector's home-grown talent development.
The university's Academy of Innovation and Research, the university's research themes of digital economy, smart design and creative, Connected communities, specifically address the social and economic challenges of the county and the world at large – from health and wellbeing and climate change to our aging society and our growing energy needs.
Read MoreThis year saw the first cohort join the university's ground-breaking postgraduate business incubation programme, Launchpad. Specifically designed to foster the creation of start-up businesses in Cornwall, it is predicted that Launchpad will create 526 new high-value jobs and 65 new companies all across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by 2023.
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Vice-chancellor Ann Carlisle at Falmouth University, said: "Launchpad reverses the usual start-up model; instead of starting with an idea for a product or service, Launchpad students respond to a problem.
"Global companies including Hitachi, Amazon, Sony Interactive Entertainment and the BBC pitch a challenge to the Launchpad students, a request for something they want developed, but don't have the expertise or capacity to tackle in-house.
"Mentored by industry experts and guided by the industry partners, the students then develop a response to the challenge and in doing so, create a viable, marketable product."
Launchpad is one of Falmouth University's success storiesMr Massey said that Bluefruit was actively working with local education providers to nurture local talent and keep them here.
He added: "We are running regular Easter schools, summer schools, apprenticeships, traineeships and other outreach activities. Currently we hire about half our staff through this homegrown pipeline. Cornwall has an interesting tech skills environment – there is a huge amount of raw talent."
Read MoreKim Conchie, chief executive officer of the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, said Cornwall may be the best place on earth to work with everything it has to offer such as superfast broadband, a beautiful landscape, low crime rate, good schools, clean air and, more importantly, a proper career structure in the tech sector, the county is still struggling to attract the "bright young people at the top of their game".
He said: "For too many people Cornwall is not seen as a valuable career choice so they either start out here then leave or come towards the tail end of their career.
"Despite everything Cornwall has to offer we still struggle to attract the skills people in their twenties, thirties and forties.
"But our tech sector continues to thrive and is recruiting. If you have the software programming skills and a creative streak the firms here will almost create a job for you."
Mr Conchie said he was working hard with tech sector leaders to launch a recruitment campaign which will be launched in London next year to show off Cornwall as the right place to have a career in the sector.
What sort of jobs are available in the tech industry in Cornwall?There are plenty of coding jobs and software developer opportunities around and wages will vary from £22,000 to £55,000 for the right person and skills.
Read MoreThat's the bracket Engineered Arts tends to put on all the jobs it offers with everything being negotiable.
The firm is currently looking for a 3D designer, a mechanical design engineer and a software developer.
But if you look on Software Cornwall's website, you will see dozens of job opportunities for everything from app creators to test analysts, senior technical project manager and compliance officer to developers with certain skills like .net or JavaScript software writing knowhow.
RoboThespian from Penryn-based Engineered Arts helped launch the EDGE AwardsJames Fisher Marine Services is currently looking for a software engineer for its Falmouth office.
Read MoreThese are the skills you will need: "Experience in C#, .net, Entity Framework and WPF for coding the UI, and Python for the computational heavy lifting. Understanding of SQL, AWS, and MATLAB would help, but isn't critical.
"You will also have light IT responsibilities in helping to keep our services operational, so general networking experience would be an advantage," the cmpany said.
Software developers are also wanted by outsourced software company Headforwards for its Pool Innovation Centre base.
For these jobs you will need experience in Java Script or .net, Angular or Boostrap (all of which will be meaningless to tech outsiders) and all these jobs are being advertised with salaries ranging from £25,000 to £45,000.
Headforwards based at the Pool Innovation Centre is the largest tech company in Cornwall and keeps on growing (Image: Headforwards)All jobs in the tech sector in Cornwall don't just focus on technical skills but on what Cornwall has to offer the right candidates too, that is, a county which offer plenty of beaches and beautiful coastline, beautiful woodlands and enough heritage to keep you busy for a lifetime.
On the Software Cornwall job page, Headforwards advertises its jobs saying: "Did you know the tech industry in Cornwall is one of the fastest growing in the UK? No jokes about Cornwall not having mobile signal, we have a 300 mbs fibre connection! We're about to reach 100 people but we work in small teams of no more than 10.
Read More"We've managed to keep a great culture and start-up feel, but we have the security of a 100-people, six-year established business. We work with some of the largest companies in the world, developing world class software for a variety of different systems and businesses.
"Whilst our work is project/client based, you won't find anyone sitting on the bench here – you're more likely to find us on the beach. Or paddleboarding, surfing, building robots…all sorts really."
Outset Cornwall is a Eurpoean Regional Development Fund (ERDF)-funded programme supporting under-represented groups from Cornwall to start their own businesses.
It too is looking for tech skills and an e-learning content developer (job advertised for £25,000) to create video, audio, animation and graphics, update, improve and maintain Outset Cornwall's online resources.
Are you looking for job in the tech sector in Cornwall, click HERE.
The Cornwall EDGE Awards Cornwall EDGE Awards 2017The first-ever Cornwall Live EDGE Awards in association with by Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Growth Hub and Skills Hub have been launched to celebrate the tech sector in Cornwall.
With the support of some major organisations, like Headforwards , Engineered Arts , Truro and Penwith College and The Smart Home Co and Falmouth University, we have been looking for Cornwall's digital superstars, from the school projects and teachers using software, tech, digital and design to new start-ups, digital entrepreneurs, games designers, software developers, website, app and video producers and digital media gurus.
The shortlist has now been finalised and the awards ceremony will take place on Thursday November 30, 2017 at The Lighthouse Cinema in Newquay.
To purchase a ticket, go to www.cornwalllive.com/EDGEawards.
Source: From coders to 3D designers, software testers to web designers and app creators, Cornwall tech sector is recruiting
