Launch of Women in Tech taskforce

Women throughout Britain can be higher supported to enter, keep and lead in the UK’s tech sector as Technology Secretary Liz Kendall launches the Women in Tech Taskforce.

The UK’s tech sector is flourishing, however it isn’t working for everybody. Every year, the economy loses an estimated £2 – £3.5 billion as a result of girls depart the tech sector or change jobs as a result of boundaries that ought to not exist.

Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Liz Kendall is taking decisive motion to vary that, convening the primary assembly of the flagship Women in Tech Taskforce on the British Science Association yesterday (Monday 15 December). 

The taskforce is bringing collectively main business figures and consultants from throughout the tech ecosystem. This first-of-its-kind initiative will advise authorities on higher help range in tech and make sure the UK accesses the complete expertise pool, market alternatives, and innovation capability wanted for financial development.

The want for change is evident. Men outnumber girls 4 to 1 in computer science degrees. Women are much less more likely to enter tech, keep in the sector, or rise to management, not as a result of they’re much less succesful, however as a result of systemic boundaries maintain them again. A 2023 Fawcett Society study found 20% of men in tech imagine girls are inherently much less fitted to these roles.

At the present tempo, it’ll take 283 years for women to attain equal illustration in tech and female-founded startups obtain 5.9x less funding than male-founded ones, regardless of delivering 35% higher returns on investment.

The Women in Tech Taskforce will determine and dismantle boundaries to schooling, coaching, and profession development. It will develop sensible options for presidency and business to implement facet by facet, form coverage that encourages range and ranges the taking part in area, and drive sustainable and inclusive financial development by increasing alternatives for ladies throughout the UK.

Technology Secretary, Liz Kendall mentioned:

Technology ought to work for everybody, that’s the reason I’ve established the Women in Tech Taskforce, to interrupt down the boundaries that also maintain too many individuals again, and to accomplice with business on sensible options that make an actual distinction.

This issues deeply to me. When girls are impressed to tackle a job in tech and have a seat on the desk, the sector could make extra consultant selections, construct merchandise that serve everybody, and unlock the innovation and development our financial system wants.

In one of the primary strikes to determine the taskforce Anne-Marie Imafidon, founder of the STEMETTES, has been appointed because the Women in Tech Envoy and in this function will lead the taskforce alongside Secretary of State.

The taskforce will look to copy the success of excellent women-led UK tech corporations, together with Ivee, Starling Bank, Peanut, and Koru Kids, and can complement main DSIT initiatives designed to develop and help tech expertise in the UK, such because the £187m TechFirst abilities programme and the Regional Tech Booster programme.

Encouraging extra girls into tech careers begins in the classroom – and that’s why the federal government is standing up the landmark TechFirst skills programme to assist extra ladies develop tech abilities and contemplate a future profession in tech. 

This comes as the federal government has introduced the brand new curriculum will guarantee each younger particular person learns important digital and AI abilities – equipping them with the capabilities wanted to open the doorways to careers in tech. With the federal government’s wider help of the STEM Ambassadors Programme and the National Centre for Computing Education’s ‘I Belong’ programme, exhibiting ladies throughout the nation the potential careers they may have in tech. The taskforce will construct on these measures with plans to spice up illustration in the tech workforce.