Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced that its digital skills programme, IT Futures, has engaged 570,000 students, across the UK, registering a sharp increase in participation by young girls.

TCS’ IT Futures Programme focuses on young people in schools, colleges and universities, as well as their influencers – teachers, parents, and peers. It’s administered by 200 volunteers from TCS, with third parties and industry leaders, including Airbus and the Royal Bank of Scotland collaborating on the project.

A new pilot initiative, TCS Girls in AI engaged over 800 female students in Scotland through a series of workshops that explore machine learning and coding but also look at how tech can be used to solve societal problems.

The company will host over 270 young girls at three additional workshops in Scotland this year, and plans to expand the program nationwide in 2020.

 

These initiatives aim to address the UK’s digital skills gap which was highlighted a report by TCS and the Confederation of British Industry, suggested to cost the UK economy £63bn a year.

TCS is partnering with the Lloyds Banking Group to host more than 950 students, aged 12-18, at a five-day Digital Explorers workshop in Manchester to learn digital and employability skills from professionals in the field and network with TCS employees.

Previous events in Liverpool, Bristol, London, Peterborough, Birmingham and Edinburgh saw participation by 5,000 students. The proportion of girls taking part in Digital Explorers has also increased from 28% in 2018 to 41% in 2019.

Yogesh Chauhan, director, corporate sustainability, TCS says “We’re thrilled to see the growth of our STEM initiatives, as we continue to encourage young people to understand how the latest technology can be used to create their own solutions.”

In addition to the STEM initiatives for students, TCS works with customers to provide digital skills opportunities to people already in the workforce. Employees recently volunteered at an Engineering open day at Lloyds’ Manchester branch for non-technical staff.