Hire junior talent, your way
This is a practical route to permanent junior hiring, not a placement programme. Recruit directly into a permanent role, or use a structured, supported paid placement to see someone work before you decide. Either way, we support you end to end.
Register your interest
One mission, three ways in. Whichever you choose, you're building tomorrow's workforce, and any one of them is a win for your business and for Sussex.
Choose a hiring route
Hire a permanent junior role
You know you need someone. We help you shape the role, then match you with validated candidates who fit. You interview people who've already shown they can do the work.
Youth Jobs Grant: £3,000 for eligible hiresHire a placement
A structured, supported try-before-you-hire route: 6 to 12 weeks paid at 25+ hours a week, inside your team. Watch candidates solve real challenges at our hackathons before they ever set foot in your business, then see your favourite in your real environment. Most placements convert to lasting roles.
We'll show you the exact numbers before you commit, and the funding that unlocks if you convert to a permanent role or apprenticeship.Hire an apprentice
The route you may already know: longer-term development with a local training provider partner. Training is 100% funded for eligible SME apprentices, plus cash incentives and NI savings.
Up to £5,000 of government incentives, plus 100% funded training for eligible apprentices. Talk to us about what your hire unlocks.See all grants and incentivesReady? Become a Champion, post your opportunity
Roles don't need "developer" in the title. A marketing, finance or operations junior qualifies when the role genuinely builds or applies an AI, data or cyber capability, and we help you shape the role so it does.
Register your interest
Not ready for forms and decisions? Thirty seconds, and our programme manager will call you for a proper conversation.
What could a junior do in your industry?
Six kinds of Sussex organisation get the most from the programme. Pick yours: each shows what an AI-capable junior actually does day to day, and each becomes a full sector page in the live build.
Future-proof your engineering team
SaaS, fintech and product businesses using juniors on delivery, QA automation and internal tooling. A pre-assessed local talent pipeline that fills the gap left by Wired Sussex: meet future developers before your competitors do.
Fresh thinking, better client work
AI-assisted juniors picking up front-end builds, QA, internal tooling and client reporting, freeing seniors for the hard problems. See potential in action before you hire. Case study in production (TechNative).
Turn AI ambition into results
Data-literate juniors automating reporting, document workflows and client insight in law, accountancy, finance and consultancy firms. Bring new skills into the firm without hiring blind.
AI on the factory floor
Machine-vision quality checks, process data analysis, automation of manual reporting. A 40-person Worthing precision engineering firm put a career-changer on their inspection data via a hackathon challenge: six months later she runs their quality dashboard and scrap rates are down 12%. (Illustrative until the real case study lands; Sussex Innovation producing.)
Better ways of working
Charities, logistics and distribution, healthcare, housing and utilities: juniors on routing and demand data, warehouse automation, process improvement and systems adoption. One well-placed junior can unlock better ways of working across a team.
Grow your own analyst
Junior SOC analysts and Cyber Essentials support roles, validated through simulated incident-response challenges. Build your next generation of cyber consultants with confidence, without lowering your standards.
Refer an employer
Know a business that should be part of this? One introduction from a trusted contact is worth fifty cold emails.
How we support you
Being a Tech Talent Champion is not a badge and a handshake. It comes with a package of hands-on support worth thousands of pounds, fully funded by the programme.
Tech Talent Development Plan
Once you take someone on, one of our teaching and learning specialists builds this with you during the placement. You get:
- A capability and readiness review: where AI, data and cyber skills sit in your team today
- A junior talent roadmap for your organisation, tailored to your growth plans
- A Workforce Integration and Progression Plan for your new hire: onboarding, supervision, milestones
- A CPD pathway for the people who'll supervise and mentor your junior
Placement Success Manager
A named human who supports you and your new hire from offer to conversion:
- Structured onboarding support in week one
- Regular check-ins with you and the candidate
- Early-warning support if anything wobbles
- Conversion planning: turning the placement into a lasting role, with the funding mapped
Funding navigation
The incentives landscape is generous but confusing. We track every scheme and do the legwork:
- We check every candidate's incentive eligibility at registration
- Your shortlist shows what each hire unlocks for you
- We help with the applications, deadlines and paperwork
Recognition and promotion
We actively promote the businesses that step up:
- The Tech Talent Champions digital badge for your website, email footers and LinkedIn
- Your hiring story written up and promoted by us, in the press and across the region's networks
- Speaking slots and visibility at Sussex tech events and meetups
"Won't AI just replace juniors?"
No. AI is exactly why a junior is now the smartest hire you can make.
Our juniors are trained to work with AI from day one: an AI-augmented junior ships work that used to need mid-level experience, at junior cost. And every business needs people who grow with its systems from the ground up: hire no juniors today and you have no seniors, and no succession plan, in five years. The businesses that win with AI will be the ones with people who learned to apply it inside their operations. That learning starts with a junior hire.