THG has joined forces with charity Tech She Can in a two-year partnership to help tackle the gender divide in the UK’s tech industry by taking the industry into classrooms and the community.
Tech She Can has reached 53,000 pupils in classrooms across the UK to date, with more than 50% of schools in disadvantaged areas.
Through the partnership, THG employees will be invited to enrol in Tech She Can’s volunteering
programme, Tech We Can Champions, involving relatable tech role models delivering online and in-person classroom visits across the UK to teach school-age children valuable technology and life skills.
THG’s moves comes against backdrop of a skills shortage with two million vacancies for tech roles across the UK economy in 2022, according to Tech Nation. 70% of UK technology employers report skills shortages – but only 26% of the tech workforce is female. THG is determined to work with Tech She Can to push this number higher. The group is working hard to achieve 50% female representation in THG’s Graduate & Apprenticeship schemes by 2025, one of the four key objectives in the THG x Planet Earth sustainability strategy.
Jo Drake, Chief Information Officer at THG, said: “We are delighted to collaborate with Tech She Can, a forward-looking and inventive charitable organisation. Our joint efforts will ignite inspiration and provide deeper insights into technology careers for upcoming generations. This partnership enables long term improvement in representation across the entire technology industry and we are excited to see where this partnership will take us.”
Dr Claire Thorne, co-CEO at Tech She Can, added: “Support from THG and our strategic partners allows us to significantly increase the scale of our work and meet the massive demand we are seeing. We are directly creating a more diverse workforce for now and in the longer-term. We have inspired tens of thousands of children, especially girls, about careers in technology through our free Tech We Can schools’ resources and experiences. We have created pathways into tech jobs for women and we have inspired change in education, industry and policy.”
