Every secondary school in the country can now get in, and 10,000 work placements open over three years
What happened
On 21 October 2026 the government announced that its TechFirst skills programme is now open to every secondary school in the country, and that 10,000 digital and technology work experience placements will open over the next three years. The placements come from TechFirst's industry partners. The companies backing the drive include Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Cognizant, AtkinsRéalis, Arm, Kainos and QinetiQ. Other employers can sign up as Skills Deal partners. TechFirst's target is to reach 1 million students by 2028. That is a year earlier than originally planned, and the figure includes 400,000 students from disadvantaged schools. There is also a change to what pupils can use. Every student aged 11 to 18 can now access the Ada Computer Science platform, delivered with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Ada replaces the Isaac platform from the end of the 2026/27 academic year. A separate strand will give 300 women mentoring, skills development and matching with vacancies, with the aim of paid roles lasting at least six months by March 2027. The announcement sits alongside a Digital and Technologies Jobs Plan, published the same day, which sets a target of 20,000 entry-level digital and tech jobs a year. Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said: "Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not."
Why this matters
There is a strange mismatch in the jobs market at the moment, and this announcement is aimed at the middle of it. On one side, the government cites nearly 1 million young people not in education, employment or training. On the other, Skills England estimates 800,000 digital and technology roles will need filling by 2035. So there are young people without work and work without young people. The gap between the two is usually not talent. It is contact. Most people get their first job in an industry because they knew someone, or because a placement put them in a building where the work happens. If nobody in your family works in technology, there is no obvious door. That is what Ms Nandy's line about opportunity is pointing at, and it is why the placement figure matters more than the platform figure. The schools part matters for a different reason. Computer science teaching in England is unevenly resourced. Some schools have specialist teachers and well-equipped rooms. Others have one teacher covering three subjects. A free national platform does not level that out, but it does mean a motivated 14-year-old in a school without a specialist can still get at proper material. Related announcements include a call for 200,000 extra work experience placements for 14 to 16 year olds, and 600 foundation apprenticeships over four years from Great British Railways for 16 to 21 year olds.
What the evidence actually says
It is worth separating what exists today from what is a target. What exists today: TechFirst is open to all secondary schools, and the Ada Computer Science platform is available to all 11 to 18 year olds. Those are live. What is a target: the 10,000 placements open "over the next three years", not this term. The 1 million students figure is a 2028 goal. The 20,000 entry-level jobs a year is an ambition in a jobs plan, not a guarantee from employers. The women's programme covers 300 people, which is a pilot-sized number. The honest reading is that the platform access is immediate and the employment effects are years away. There is also a question the announcement does not answer: how placements will be allocated. Ten thousand placements spread over three years and across the whole country is a meaningful number, but it is not enough for every school, so who gets them matters. The stated focus on disadvantaged schools in the TechFirst target suggests an intention, not yet a mechanism. Finally, the Ada platform replacing Isaac from the end of the 2026/27 academic year is the kind of detail that trips schools up. Teachers using Isaac resources will need to move material across, and that transition is a real workload cost that does not appear in any announcement.
Practical advice
If you are a parent of an 11 to 18 year old who likes computers, Ada Computer Science is free and open to them now. They do not need their school to sign up for them to use it. It covers GCSE and A level computer science material. If your child is in Year 10 or 11 and wants work experience in technology, ask the school's careers lead specifically whether the school is a TechFirst school and whether placements are coming through it. Schools often hold this information without passing it on. If you are a young person out of work and not in education, this is not the only route. Your local Jobcentre's youth support, and the Youth Guarantee offer, exist alongside it, and a careers adviser can tell you what is open locally. If you are a teacher, the practical job this year is the Isaac-to-Ada move. Starting that before the end of the 2026/27 year is less painful than doing it in a rush. If you are an employer, the Skills Deal partner route is open, and a placement does not have to be elaborate. Two weeks of real work, properly supervised, does more than a glossy scheme. And for anyone deciding whether technology is for them: you do not need to have coded since you were nine. Most of the 800,000 roles are not programming jobs.
What to know
The government has opened its TechFirst programme to all secondary schools in the country and announced 10,000 digital and technology work experience placements over the next three years, backed by employers including Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Cognizant, AtkinsRéalis, Arm, Kainos and QinetiQ. All 11 to 18 year olds can now use the Ada Computer Science platform, which replaces Isaac from the end of the 2026/27 academic year. TechFirst aims to reach 1 million students by 2028, including 400,000 from disadvantaged schools, and a Digital and Technologies Jobs Plan targets 20,000 entry-level roles a year. A smaller strand will support 300 women into paid roles by March 2027. The platform access is available now; the employment targets are several years out. Sources: Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, "10,000 young people to get foot in the door of Britain's tech sector as work placements rolled out across the country", 21 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/10000-young-people-to-get-foot-in-the-door-of-britains-tech-sector-as-work-placements-rolled-out-across-the-country ; Ada Computer Science (Raspberry Pi Foundation), https://adacomputerscience.org/ ; Skills England, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/skills-england This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.
Related articles
Five sections, no new rules: the violence guidance schools were just sent
On 22 October 2026 the Department for Education published guidance called "Understanding and preventing serious violence in education". It was updated the follo…
72.3% is the best reception result yet. The free school meals gap got wider
On 22 October 2026 the Department for Education published the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results for 2025 to 2026. This is the assessment teachers ma…
80% said it helps them get to work on time: the breakfast club findings
On 23 October 2026 the Department for Education published the final research report on the Free Breakfast Clubs Early Adopters scheme. The research was carried…