The Government is launching a £4m scheme to help more women enter the UK tech sector

The UK government has announced a new package of programs designed to boost women’s participation in the tech sector, including a £4 million plan to support hundreds of women in tech jobs and encourage thousands of schoolgirls to pursue digital careers.

The moves are part of a wider strategy aimed at tackling the gender imbalance that persists across the technology industry, where women remain severely underrepresented despite the sector’s rapid growth and importance to the UK economy.

Ministers say the programs are aimed at helping women enter, stay and return to technical jobs, while also encouraging more girls to consider technical careers early in their education.

At the heart of the announcement is TechFirst’s new Women’s Programme, supported by £4 million of government funding. The program aims to create at least 300 paid placements in technical roles across the UK.

The program will work with businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises, to identify opportunities for women to gain experience in fields such as software development, digital engineering, data science and artificial intelligence.

Participants will receive job training, interview preparation and technical support to help them secure roles and progress within the sector.

The government hopes that the program will not only help individuals improve their careers but also support companies that want to use new technologies, especially artificial intelligence, by giving them access to skilled workers.

The ministers said that the plan deals with an important economic issue. Research suggests that the UK is losing between £2 billion and £3.5 billion each year due to women leaving the tech sector.

Alongside the employment program, the government is launching a pilot retraining program aimed at helping experienced developers get back to work after a career break.

The program will start working within government departments including the Home Office and the Department of Justice.

The program will target skilled software developers who have been out of work for at least 18 months, a group that includes many women who have taken time off to care for children or family members.

Participants will be supported in returning to high-tech jobs in the public sector, with the aim of addressing what many experts refer to as the “CV gap” an obstacle that can prevent experienced workers from returning to their jobs.

Officials say that this program can later be expanded to other departments or enter private companies if it is successful.

The government is also trying to address the early gender gap in talent development with a new national technology competition targeting school girls.

Later this year, thousands of 12- and 13-year-old girls will be invited to participate in the TechFirst Girls Competition, a national initiative designed to introduce students to coding, artificial intelligence and digital problem solving.

The competition will challenge participants to develop creative solutions to real-world problems using technology, while providing insight into how digital skills translate into the jobs of the future.

Technology company IBM will collaborate with the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology to deliver the programme.

The initiative builds on previous initiatives such as the CyberFirst Girls Competition, which has already involved more than 10,000 students across the UK.

As part of a wider policy campaign, the government’s Women in Tech Taskforce launched a call for evidence to better understand the challenges women face when entering or advancing in the tech industry.

The consultation will gather information from workers, businesses and industry associations on issues ranging from recruitment practices to workplace culture and career progression.

The task force will also examine how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence may reinforce existing inequalities.

Research has already shown that AI systems trained on employment history data can replicate past biases. For example, some recruiting algorithms have been found to favor male applicants over female applicants when evaluating job applications.

Officials say gathering real-world experience will help shape future policy designed to make the tech sector more inclusive.

Announcing the initiative, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said women continue to face significant barriers in the industry.

“I am very aware of the reality that women face in technology: women are not given a fair chance, whether that is entering the field, staying in it, or returning later,” she said.

“If we don’t fix these biases and barriers now, we’ll still be having this conversation in ten years.”

Kendall said the government wants to ensure that women not only enter the industry but also shape their future.

“These are not warm words, they are real jobs, real places and real ways to get back through the door that has been so hard to open for so long.”

Industry figures welcomed the announcement but stressed that long-term structural change would be needed to close the gender gap in technology.

Anna Brailsford, chief executive of Code First Girls and a member of the Women in Tech Taskforce, said improving access to training and career opportunities can change lives.

“Many women who have entered technology started their journey not sure if they belong in this field and now they are succeeding in roles that have a big impact,” she said.

“The UK’s ambition to lead in technology will only be realized if more women can see a clear and grounded path into the technology sector.”

The government hopes these new measures will help strengthen the UK’s tech workforce at a time when demand for digital skills continues to grow rapidly across industries from finance and healthcare to manufacturing and the development of artificial intelligence.