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THG Announces Strategic Partnership with Tech She Can to Encourage Female Representation in Tech and Tackle Skills Shortage
11-10-2023
Tech she can classroom

 

11 October 2023 – THG PLC (“THG” or “The Group”), the global proprietary technology platform specialising in taking brands direct to consumers (“D2C”), 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.

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.

Tech She Can has grown to include over 240 member organisations collaborating to inspire and educate girls and women to explore technology-related fields and pursue technology careers. In 2023, Tech She Can reached 53,000 pupils in classrooms across the UK. With a focus on social mobility, over 50% of the schools were in disadvantaged areas.

The initiative comes against the backdrop of an industry skills shortage. According to Tech Nation, there were two million vacancies for tech roles across the UK economy in 2022, with 70% of UK technology employers reporting skills shortages. Despite this, only 26% of the tech workforce is female compared to 50% of the labour market overall, a number which is consistent across organisations of all sizes. There has been some improvement in this space, as the percentage of women in tech is up from just 19% in 2019, however, more needs to be done. THG is determined to work with Tech She Can in pushing this number higher.

The initiative forms part of THG’s ambitions of achieving 50% female representation in THG’s Graduate & Apprenticeship schemes by 2025, one of the four key objectives in its THG x Planet Earth sustainability strategy. Partnerships with organisations like Tech She Can provides an opportunity for THG employees to participate in volunteer opportunities, teach children valuable skills, and continue to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace at THG.

The partnership will also support three additional objectives in THG’s sustainability strategy, THG x Planet Earth, including:

 

  1. Providing volunteering opportunities for THG employees aligns with THG’s goal of introducing two days paid volunteer leave each year by 2025. 
  2. Through volunteering, THG employees will contribute to the goal of providing 10,000 people in our communities with tech and life skills by 2030.
  3. Volunteer opportunities aim to engage employees across the Group, aligning with THG’s goal of increasing employee engagement by at least 15%.


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, said: “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.”

THG is passionate about supporting its employees and communities and is determined to improve the ratio of women working in tech jobs within the Group globally. For more information or to learn about Tech She Can, visit their website at https://techshecan.org/.