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Campaign launched to encourage women into tech careers
21 October 2020 Professional Development Talent Acquisition
An awareness-raising campaign to encourage more women from across the UK into tech careers has been launched today.
The Tech Talent Charter, a non-profit organisation that addressed inequality in the UK tech sector, has launched the campaign, called ‘Doing It Anyway’, which focuses on encouraging working-age women to consider a career in tech.
It features images of women from a variety of backgrounds who have found careers in technology through inspiring, non-traditional paths.
The UK tech sector suffers from significant gender inequality, with only around 17% of tech roles being held by women.
Research by HP and the Fawcett Society has shown that 45% of women in other roles would be interested in retraining into a tech role but 32% did not believe they had the right qualifications.
The women were selected for the Doing it Anyway campaign from more than 300 candidates nominated by Tech Talent Charter signatories. Through the initiative they tell the stories of their personal journeys into their tech careers, highlighting the need for more women in these kinds of jobs.
All of the campaign materials carry a link that takes people to a directory of more than 300 vacancies, courses and retraining programmes run by Tech Talent Charter signatories and the wider tech industry.
Co-founder and author of the Tech Talent Charter Sinead Bunting said: “Women’s careers have been disproportionately affected by the Coronavirus outbreak.
“Despite this, we know that many companies are actively recruiting women and people from minority backgrounds into tech roles within their organisations. At the Tech Talent Charter we aim to connect the dots and highlight some of the opportunities open to women of all ages and from all backgrounds.
“The message of this campaign is women already have the everyday skills that lend themselves to a successful career in tech and that we NEED women of all kinds to bring their skills to the UK tech sector in order for it to thrive. We hope by seeing the campaign, it will inspire women to have the confidence to take the next step and explore how they can get started with a career in tech.”
The Tech Talent Charter is a series of commitments by signatories to address the gender balance of their tech teams, and this campaign highlights the opportunities that exist for women who are interested in joining the tech sector.
The women, from across the UK, were nominated by Tech Talent Charter signatory organisations for their inspiring personal journeys into a tech career. Their stories are all featured on www.techtalentcharter.co.uk.