Barclays chief operating officer Mark Ashton-Rigby has said the bank is responding to recent layoffs across the technology sector by extending its FinTech academy.

The Special Edition Rise Start-up Academy is a digital-first programme targeting people who have been impacted by the downsizing of the tech industry.

The 20-week equity free programme aims to connect professionals with technical and financial experts in the Rise community to help them launch an idea or business.

“The recent wave of layoffs in the tech sector has been concerning, particularly when I think about the talented people who are impacted by the changes,” wrote Ashton-Rigby in a LinkedIn post. “But I'm a firm believer that when one door closes, another one opens and out of adversity can come opportunity.”

The bank is also actively seeking out technology experts to join the organisation, with over 3,000 technology roles open on its careers site, ranging from engineering and architecture to cyber and innovation.

Earlier this week, Amazon revealed plans to lay off around 10,000 staff in a move representing the largest set of job cuts in the tech giant's history.

This represents the latest spate of job cuts from BigTech firms. Facebook owner Meta last week cut 11,000 staff while one of Elon Musk’s first actions as owner of Twitter was to cut around half of its 7,500 staff.

Platformer also reports that Twitter has cut 4,400 of its contract workers.

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