Computer science: a global passport

Get ready for some quick stats to inspire you about where in the world your computer science skills may take you.

North America

• The US has the largest tech market in the world – it makes up 31% of the global market and was valued at approximately $1.6 trillion in 2019.
• According to a survey conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association, nearly four in 10 US tech firms have job openings and are actively recruiting for technical positions.
• US employment in IT and tech is forecast to grow by 13% between 2016 and 2026 – that’s faster than the average for all other occupations.
• However, the US isn’t the only thriving North American tech market. In 2017, there were nearly 29,000 new tech jobs created in Toronto, Canada’s largest city – that’s more vacancies than in San Francisco, Seattle or Washington in the same period.

Europe

• Europe’s tech sector is growing five times faster than the rest of the European economy and the tech workforce increased by 4% – compared to just 1.1% employment growth overall.
• European tech companies that went public (listing their shares on the stock exchange) in 2018 saw their share price increase by an average of 222% compared to an increase of just 42% for US companies.
• The UK tech market is particularly strong and is worth nearly £184 billion. Some of the UK’s fastest growing tech companies include: Improbable, Deliveroo, Farfetch, The Hut Group and Skyscanner. London is also home to DeepMind, a global leader in artificial intelligence that was acquired by Google in 2014.
• However, some of Europe’s biggest companies are found in Scandinavia. Swedish music streaming service, Spotify, is by far Europe’s most highly valued tech company, with German ecommerce firm Zalando and Finnish gaming company Supercell also valued at more than $10 billion.

Asia

• While the US is the largest technology market, the majority of technology spending is outside America. One in every three dollars spent on tech worldwide is in the Asia-Pacific region.
• China’s top three web giants – Alibaba, Tencent and ANT Financial – are worth $1.1 trillion.
• India is the world’s number one offshoring destination for IT services, representing about 55% about of the $200 billion market.
• South East Asia is now home to eight tech “unicorns” (start-ups that are valued at $1 billion or more). The list includes Indonesia-based Go-Jek, described as a “super app” that offers a range of on-demand services, and Grab in Singapore, which offers ride-hailing transport services, food delivery and payment solutions.

And what do employers have to say?

Since leaving the army Melissa Dean has worked for a number of companies with multinational reach, including Vodafone, and is now Programme Director at The AA. She explained how a global spread of computing experts is benefiting all industries – and why outsourcing to other countries is not simply a trend, it’s the way business now works.

“I’d challenge anyone to name a multinational organisation that doesn’t have a wide geographical spread of technical staff. Whether you look to India, where there is an extremely high calibre workforce specialised in back office IT systems, or to the Philippines or Australia. Companies want to run 24/7 operations and having staff spread over the world makes complete business sense.

“We may see the locations of new talent evolve and hubs of specialist expertise may rotate around the world. I predict Silicon Valley will continue to grow but we’ll also see China catching up. But ultimately companies want the highest calibre staff, whether that talent is homegrown, or they look to other countries and continents to find it.”

Wherever you are based right now, studying computer science with the University of London will give you a virtual passport to global career opportunities in tech.

Find out more about the BSc Computer Science degrees.