More than a quarter of developers in the UK are self-taught and have no university education.
A study by jobs website Hired found 26 per cent of developers in the UK have no listed university education and have taught themselves coding skills.
Mehul Patel, CEO of Hired, said some firms put a lot of stake in a potential candidate’s CV, and they could be missing out on talented people.
He said: “People tend to look for certain major indicators of success, but you need to have a hiring process that’s flexible enough to recognise talent even if they don’t have the right school or the right degree.
“The folk who self-teach and self-learn are passionate and dedicated.”
There is currently a skills gap in the UK, with many firms unable to find candidates with the tech skills they need to fill roles – costing the UK economy approximately £2billion a year.
The research from Hired found a growing gap between demand for security and data experts and the number of people with those particular skills.
Over the past year there has been a 222 per cent increase in the number of interview requests made by employers for security engineering roles and a 234 per cent increase for data engineers.
Patel added: “The areas most in demand in the digital economy are, unsurprisingly, security and data.
“There is a widening gap between demand for these services and the lack of supply to match that.”
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