The UK’s tech sector is haemorrhaging talent, with women leaving in droves and costing the economy up to £3.5 billion annually in lost productivity, innovation, and growth.
Now, the government is stepping in with a concrete action plan to stem the exodus and build a more inclusive industry.
The Lovelace Report, published in 2025, shows that between 40,000 and 60,000 women exit tech roles each year in the UK. Roughly 45% leave the sector entirely, while others churn between employers seeking better environments.
The economic hit breaks down to £1.4 billion to £2.2 billion from full exits, plus £640 million to £1.3 billion from internal churn, totalling up to £3.5 billion lost every year.
The UK faces a skills shortage of 98,000 to 120,000 tech professionals, even as the government pushes ambitious goals like scaling the AI workforce and boosting research capacity twentyfold by 2030.
Persistent underrepresentation also risks baking biases into emerging technologies. Examples include AI recruitment tools favouring male-associated names nearly five times more often, or health AI models twice as likely to miss liver disease in women.
New package
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has now announced a package of measures to tackle barriers at every stage: attracting girls early, helping women enter and advance, retaining them, and supporting returns after career breaks.
Central to the plan is the TechFirst Women’s Programme, backed by £4 million in funding.
It will deliver 300 paid work placements (at least six months) in tech roles, primarily at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Participants receive coaching, interview preparation, and support to build careers while helping companies adopt AI and other technologies.
For experienced women returning after time away, such as for childcare, the government is piloting a returnship jobs scheme targeting skilled software developers out of work for 18 months or more.
The pilot, starting with applications in spring 2026, focuses on senior roles in the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, but is open to qualifying developers more broadly.
To spark interest among the next generation, the TechFirst Girls Competition expands on the successful CyberFirst Girls Competition (which reached over 10,000 students).
Launching later this year in partnership with IBM, it will engage thousands of 12- and 13-year-old girls in AI and coding challenges designed to inspire future tech careers.
“Women aren’t being given a fair shot in tech—whether that’s getting into the sector, staying in it, or returning after time away, bringing up their families. If we don’t address these issues now, we’ll still be having this conversation in decades’ time, and that isn’t good enough,” said Technology Secretary Liz Kendall.
“We’re acting through a skills and jobs package to get more women into tech quickly. These aren’t warm words – they’re real jobs, real placements, and real routes back in through a door that has been too hard to open, for too long.
“But we’re not just fixing today’s problem. Through the Women in Tech Taskforce, I want to make sure women aren’t just entering this sector -they’re shaping it. Co-creating the technologies, the culture, and the future of an industry that for too long has been built without them.”
The announcements come amid broader efforts to make tech more representative and competitive.
Details for placements and competitions will appear on GOV.UK soon, with launches rolling out later in 2026.
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