A Liverpool social enterprise inspiring women and girls to break into the male-dominated tech sector has engaged with almost 700,000 people in the past year. Tony McDonough reports

A social enterprise set up in Liverpool to encourage women and girls to pursue careers in tech has engaged with 692,000 people across the UK over the past year.

Originally called Liverpool Girl Geeks, the venture was renamed InnovateHer in 2018 as it took its work beyond the city region and across the country. Founded by Chelsea Slater and Jo Morfee, it now has a 10-strong team based in the Baltic Triangle in Liverpool.

InnovateHer mostly works with young pupils, with 85% of students aged between 13 and 15. Its team works to highlight the importance of getting young people immersed in STEM  subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) from an early age.

Tech and engineering are traditionally male-dominated sectors. In digital sub-sectors in particular there is a well established ‘bro culture’.

According to InnovateHer’s latest impact study, 26% of the UK tech workforce is female. This is up from 19% in its previous impact study. Black women make up just 0.7% of the workforce.

It also found only 20% of students taking computer science at GCSE are female. And it reveals 45% more women than men leave tech jobs, with 50% of females leaving before the age of 35.

However, after taking InnovateHer’s courses, 50% of students said they felt more confident about going into a career in tech.

Chelsea Slater, co-founder, and director of InnovateHer, said: “Our annual impact report is an important piece of research that not only highlights the work we do, but also why we do it.

“It’s great to see that the female tech workforce is on the rise by 7%, but this isn’t enough. We’re passionate about getting out into schools and giving girls the confidence to consider a career in tech.

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“We’ve relaunched our Tech4Good downloadable workbook, and our Understanding UX course online, and soon we’ll be launching further short courses to allow students to learn about the areas of tech they’re most interested in.

“Our team is growing and we’re now a mighty team of 10. We’ve never been more passionate about our work with partners and schools.”