Women at every stage of their careers are set to benefit from new government measures announced today, aimed at boosting female participation in tech.
Women in tech remain significantly underrepresented, and the cost is substantial: the economy loses an estimated £2 to £3.5bn every year as women leave the sector. Today’s package is designed to change this.
The package includes paid tech placements and support for those returning after career breaks to re-enter tech jobs.
Furthermore, a new TechFirst Girls Competition will be delivered to thousands across the country later this year to encourage more girls to consider a future in tech from an early age.
Secretary of State Liz Kendall explained: “Women aren’t being given a fair shot in tech – whether that’s getting into the sector, staying in it, or returning after time away bringing up their families.
“I want to make sure women aren’t just entering this sector – they’re shaping it. Co-creating the technologies, the culture, and the future of an industry that for too long has been built without them.”
Gender bias in the technology sector remains
Women leaving tech has real consequences for the technology being built, with inherent biases built into designs by an unrepresentative workforce – unfairly impacting women.
AI tools used in recruitment have been found to favour male names nearly five times more than female names, and research has uncovered that AI models built to predict liver disease were twice as likely to miss it in women.
To tackle these generational challenges, Kendall launched the Women in Tech Taskforce in December.
Bringing together some of the most influential women from the industry to join forces with the aim of getting more women entering, progressing, staying, and leading in tech.
Unlocking opportunities through SMEs
The jobs programme will help 300 women in tech advance their careers and unlock opportunities in SMEs through paid work placements, backed by a new £4m TechFirst Women’s Programme.
The programme will provide women with coaching and interview prep support and work with SMEs across the country to identify at least 300, with a minimum of 6-month placements, in tech roles for local women.
This will help women open new career opportunities and help SMEs adopt and innovate with AI and tech in their operations.
Helping women re-enter the industry after time away
This comes alongside a new returnship jobs pilot scheme that will support skilled software developers to re-enter the workforce and take on senior tech roles in government after time away.
The returnship scheme will be piloted with the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice and will be open to any software developers who have been away from work for 18 months or more, such as women who have been caring for children.
This will help bust the ‘CV gap’ barrier many returners face when trying to get back to work – a reality for many women who have put their career on hold for their families.
The future of women in tech: Helping young girls consider future careers
Fixing the talent gap means starting long before the workplace, and girls need to see themselves in tech before they ever reach their first job.
This year, IBM delivered the CyberFirst Girls Competition to over 10,000 students, and IBM have confirmed they will be partnering with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to deliver the new TechFirst Girls Competition, launching later this year.
This competition will see thousands of 12- and 13-year-old girls use technologies like AI and coding to think creatively and solve problems, competing in challenges and winning.
It provides girls insight into how tech can be used to tackle problems and what a future career for women in tech might be like.
Better support for women in tech starts today
Building on this package, the Women in Tech Taskforce has today launched a Call for Evidence to examine how we can better support women in the future as emerging technologies and AI advance, and to examine the inherent biases built into these technologies, which continue to disproportionately impact women.
This will ensure the Taskforce continues to use real, lived experience to shape its work and future government action.
Today’s measures represent a clear signal that the government is addressing these challenges to build a world-leading tech sector – backing women in tech at every stage, from the classroom to the boardroom, and every point in between.
