Closer to home than you think: what Northern Reach’s Dan Knowles told our students

Posted on by Rebecca Chan

Photo of Dan Knowles and theme of lecture - Lancashire and Cumbria Innovation Ecosystem

Dan Knowles opened his lecture with a question. He asked those in the room, mostly computer science and data science students, whether Preston, Kendal or Barrow were on their radar for a first job. London, Manchester and Silicon Valley, yes. Those places, perhaps not so much.

“I’m going to take that as a no,” he said, before taking us on a tour of the North West’s innovation landscape: the employers, the sectors and the opportunities around Lancaster.

A map of opportunity

Dan runs Northern Reach, which works with councils, public sector bodies, corporates and universities to connect them with the region’s technology businesses. His way into the talk was a map of the region. Look at where the big employers and supply chains sit, he said, and you’ll find the opportunities clustered around them.

At Sellafield, decommissioning is driving work on robotics and operational technology. Barrow builds the UK’s submarines. Blackpool is home to the planned Silicon Sands data centre and a growing public sector presence. At Samlesbury, BAE Systems makes aircraft, and the National Cyber Force is to be based nearby. Add Lancaster’s own cluster of knowledge-intensive firms and an advanced manufacturing belt running along the M65, and you get a region where critical national infrastructure, advanced engineering and security come together.

It’s about the person, not the skill

Dan’s team speaks to more than 300 companies a year. What do they want? Seldom a specific skill. “It’s more about the type of person,” he said, and the word he hears again and again is initiative. Employers want people who can take responsibility for something and carry it from A to B.

His advice was practical. Sort out your LinkedIn profile, because you never know what a connection might lead to. Then reach out to graduates two or three years ahead of you and ask for ten minutes on a call. Send twenty messages, he said, and a handful will come back. If someone helps you, go back and tell them what you did with their advice. Mentors rarely hear that, and it builds the relationship.

Thinking of starting something?

For anyone with a business idea, Dan was upbeat. The region is getting better at attracting early-stage investment, there are start-up grants, and networks like the Electech Innovation Cluster are full of founders happy to give something back. Spaces like Fraser House in Lancaster bring like-minded people together, and he urged students to talk to their academics, who can open doors to networks and programmes they might not have known existed.

The questions

A data science student asked what opportunities exist for graduates. Dan’s answer was to keep the search broad: finance, health, energy and local government all need data scientists, even if the job title doesn’t say so. Another student wanted to know how to show initiative beyond networking. Dan suggested having a story ready about something you created that wasn’t there before. It needn’t be cyber-related, as the point is to show that when you care about something, you take ownership and make it happen.

What I’m taking away

The guest lecture series exists to help students and staff see what is happening in cyber across the region, and Dan was a brilliant speaker to open the new academic year. He showed us that the opportunities are closer than many of us might think. For any student wondering where they could fit in, the answer may be a short train ride away! I’m looking forward to hearing more from the series as the year continues.

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