The Next Tech Girls initiative, which is working to improve female talent pipelines within STEM through providing access to work experience, is celebrating reaching its target of placing 100 year 10 students before the 2016 summer break. The programme, which is the brainchild of specialist global tech recruitment consultancy, Empiric, was launched with the aim of inspiring 5,000 more females to pursue careers within technology roles in the UK by 2020.
In response to dwindling numbers of women in the tech sector – with just 17% of the workforce made up of females – the Next Tech Girls campaign is working with education institutions and employers to place girls into relevant work experience opportunities. Over 100 students from across London, who are currently taking ICT or Computing at GCSE level, have been offered a glimpse of the myriad of careers the sector offers through successful placements at companies including Virgin Money, Hive, Aberdeen Asset Management, Softwire, VE Interactive, and Telefónica’s start-up accelerator, Wayra. The initiative is supported by working groups and bodies including TechUK, Tech London Advocates and The Greater London Authority.
Steve Brown, Programme Manager at Next Tech Girls and Director at Empiric, comments:
“I’m delighted although not altogether surprised that this initiative has already been such a success. The talent shortages that the tech and digital sectors are currently facing are intrinsically linked with female under-representation, and we are not alone in seeking a solution to this challenge.”
“I am pleased to report that interest from clients looking to host students has been greater than we’d ever anticipated and I’d like to thank all the organisations involved – without your time and resources this would not be possible.”
“Less than a year after inception, Next Tech Girls has already proved that there is a real appetite to tap into fresh young talent pools – the only piece missing from the jigsaw was a facilitator. We’re currently applying improvements from feedback and automating processes to ensure the initiative can be scaled to meet future demand. Applying a digital by default methodology and improving through iteration. We’re already working on Next Tech Girls 2017 and well on target to secure 5,000 placements by 2020”.
Watch Georgiana’s inspirational vlog at Virgin Money here.