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22% of the workforce and 2p in every pound: the two standards the tech industry is being asked to sign

Qurexa Editorial Team29 October 20267 min read 0 0
22% of the workforce and 2p in every pound: the two standards the tech industry is being asked to sign

What happened

On 29 October 2026, the government announced a package of measures aimed at keeping more women in technology careers and getting more money to women who start tech companies. The centrepiece is two voluntary standards, being written with industry through the Women in Tech Taskforce. Neither is finished. Both are described as in co-creation, with a formal launch expected in the coming months. The first is the Tech Forward Standard, which covers workplace culture. The government says it could include trusted routes for reporting harassment, so that staff feel safe enough to come forward. The second is the Inclusive Investment Standard, which covers how investors behave. It could include broadening the channels investors use to find deals, and tracking women-led businesses all the way from pitch to funding decision, so firms can see at which stage women founders drop out. There is also a scale-up programme for women founders of high-growth businesses, launching in 2027 and run jointly by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. It may include workshops, peer learning, networking and investor introductions. Early industry ambassadors include BT, Revolut, Sage, Balderton Capital and Octopus Ventures. Dozens of other organisations have signed up to one or other standard, from Arm and Openreach to Code First Girls, the TUC and techUK. Vicky Foxcroft MP, Digital Inclusion Minister and co-chair of the taskforce, said: "Too many talented women are leaving tech or never getting the chance to build a career in it in the first place." Anne-Marie Imafidon, Chief Executive and co-founder of Stemettes and the government's Women in Tech Envoy, said: "Too many women have told us about facing misconduct like harassment and discrimination in tech."

Why this matters

The numbers behind this are not close. Women make up 22% of the UK IT workforce. BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, counted 433,000 female IT specialists in 2025, based on analysis of Office for National Statistics labour force data. Women make up 49% of the wider workforce. To match that share, IT would need around 535,000 more women in it. On the investment side the gap is wider still. Only 2p of every £1 invested in UK venture capital goes to women-founded businesses. The government puts an economic figure on this. It says closing participation gaps could add £4 billion a year to UK GDP, and that enabling women to found and grow businesses at the same rate as men could unlock £310 billion for the economy. That second figure is an adjusted version of a 2019 estimate of £250 billion. Two other BCS findings explain why retention, not just recruitment, is the focus. Median hourly pay for women in IT was £24, about 10% below men in the same sector. And women in IT were roughly three times as likely to work part-time, at 11% against 4%. This is also a workforce question for healthcare and logistics, not just for software companies. The systems that handle prescriptions, patient records and deliveries are built by the same talent pool.

What the evidence actually says

It is worth being precise about how much of this is a commitment and how much is an intention. The two standards are voluntary. They are not regulation, and there is no penalty for a company that ignores them. The government's own description uses "could include" rather than "will include" for their contents, because the contents are still being negotiated with industry. The full ambassador cohorts and both standards are expected to be published in the coming months, which means they are not published yet. The scale-up programme is similarly provisional. It launches in 2027, and its activities are described as possible rather than confirmed. Some parts of the package are concrete and running now. Get Tech Certified is open to all public servants from 1 October to 31 December 2026 and includes a new Women in Tech strand with events, mentoring and career stories. Registration is open for a first-ever TechFirst Girls Competition. And the TechFirst Women's Programme is working with 300 women across the UK, offering mentoring, skills development and matching to live vacancies, with a target of paid roles lasting at least six months by March 2027, focused on AI, cyber security and other high-growth areas. On the evidence base, the government says 74% of respondents to its call for evidence believed better workplace culture would support women's progression and leadership in tech. That is a survey of people who chose to respond to a government consultation, not a representative sample of the industry. It tells you what engaged respondents think, which is useful, but it is not the same as measuring what works. The honest summary: the diagnosis is backed by solid labour market statistics. The treatment is a set of voluntary standards whose effect nobody can yet measure. The taskforce reconvenes in November 2026.

Practical advice

If you work in tech, or want to, there are things here you can act on now rather than waiting for a standard to be published. If you are a public servant, Get Tech Certified is open until 31 December 2026 and free to you. The Women in Tech strand adds mentoring and events. A deadline that close is worth putting in the diary this week. If you have a daughter, niece or pupil who likes building things, the TechFirst Girls Competition has registration open now. Early exposure matters more than it should, because the 7% and 8% female representation BCS found among IT and telecoms engineers does not start at the job application stage. If you are looking for a route in without a degree, note where representation is already closer to a third: IT project and programme management at 34%, IT operations technicians at 32%, web design and development at 29%. These are real jobs with real pay and more open doors. If you employ people in tech roles, you can look at the two standards' likely contents and act without signing anything. A reporting route for harassment that people actually trust, and tracking how many women-led pitches you see against how many you fund, are both things an organisation can do on its own initiative. If you are raising investment, the tracking idea cuts both ways. Ask prospective investors what proportion of their portfolio is women-founded. It is a fair question and the answer is informative.

What to know

The government and industry are writing two voluntary standards for the tech sector: the Tech Forward Standard on workplace culture, and the Inclusive Investment Standard on how investors find and fund founders. Both are still being drafted, with publication expected in the coming months. A scale-up programme for women founders follows in 2027. The problem they address is measurable. Women are 22% of the UK IT workforce against 49% of the workforce overall, and just 2p of every £1 of UK venture capital goes to women-founded businesses. The government estimates £4 billion a year in lost GDP from participation gaps alone. The parts you can use today are the live programmes: Get Tech Certified for public servants until 31 December 2026, the TechFirst Girls Competition, and the TechFirst Women's Programme working with 300 women towards paid roles by March 2027. The standards are voluntary and unwritten, so judge them when they appear. The underlying statistics, though, are not in dispute. Sources: Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, "Government and industry to take on investment bias and workplace culture to support more women in tech", 29 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-and-industry-to-take-on-investment-bias-and-workplace-culture-to-support-more-women-in-tech; BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, "BCS Women in Tech Report 2026: Gender and IT employment", 2026, https://www.bcs.org/policy-and-influence/equity-diversity-and-inclusion/bcs-women-in-tech-report-2026/gender-and-it-employment/. This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.

#women in tech#digital skills#venture capital#workplace culture#DCMS#UK economy

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