The City of London Corporation has unveiled the “Women Pivoting to Digital Taskforce” to tackle the significant underrepresentation of women in digital industries. Supported by leading businesses such as IBM, Accenture, and Salesforce, the taskforce will collaborate with government, third sector, and industry groups to help women from non-technical backgrounds transition into digital roles, including AI, data, cybersecurity, and IT.
Sheridan Ash, founder and CEO of Tech She Can and co-chair of the taskforce, emphasized the importance of this initiative in closing long-standing gaps in the technology workforce. “There is an urgent need to boost growth and productivity in the UK by addressing our skills gap in technology. Increasing the skills and diversity of the technology workforce is fundamental to the UK becoming more competitive and innovative,” said Ash. “The UK’s technology skills gap could be solved today if we had the same number of women as men working in technology jobs and careers.”
The taskforce is designed to support employers across financial and professional services and the technology sector in upskilling their workforce while providing organizations with the tools to recruit women from non-technical backgrounds. It will operate for two years, focusing on women with five or more years of experience in unrelated fields, helping them transition into digital careers.
The taskforce includes 65 subject matter experts from across the UK, each with a vested interest in digital and diversity, who will be responsible for delivering on various workstreams. Laura Faulkner, Director of Business Services at Nationwide, highlighted the initiative’s goals: “Through cross-industry collaboration, our goal is to build a robust pipeline of female talent, surfacing and supporting opportunities for more women to move into digital roles.”
The need for such an initiative is underscored by statistics from the Alan Turing Institute, which reveal that fewer than 25% of employees in AI and data science are women, and a report by Tech Talent Charter and Code First Girls predicts that without change, there will be only one woman for every 128 tech roles by 2025.
Karen Blake, co-chief executive of Tech Talent Charter, added, “With women consistently underrepresented in specialist digital roles across sectors, our mission is clear: to leverage their diverse skills for innovation. As we embark on this two-year initiative, we’re committed to bridging the gender gap and empowering women to thrive in the digital age.”
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