Eight years of Girl Tech
and a future where
we no longer need it

This Friday, we will welcome young women to Girl Tech Plus in Leeds, the final Girl Tech event of 2026. As the year draws to a close, I have found myself thinking not only about everything we have achieved over the past 12 months, but about the journey that brought us here: eight years of Girl Tech, thousands of conversations and a growing community determined to make technology more inclusive. 

Girl Tech began with a simple belief: young women should be able to see the breadth of opportunity in digital and technology before they make the choices that can shape their futures. Since then, the programme has grown beyond Leeds into London, the North West, the North East and the West Midlands. The original event for 12- to 14-year-olds has also been joined by Girl Tech Plus, launched in 2025 for post-16 students who are considering their next steps into work, education or apprenticeships.  

More than a number 

Today, 2,764 young people have taken part in Girl Tech across 36 events, supported by 913 volunteers and 182 represented businesses. Those numbers are extraordinary, but for me the real impact lives in individual moments: a student discovering a role she had never heard of; a question asked of a volunteer; a new confidence that says, “I could do this.” After last year’s events, 90% of students said they were interested in a digital career, 95% better understood digital skills and every teacher surveyed said Girl Tech provided relevant careers information.  

Built through partnership 

None of this has happened in isolation. Girl Tech has always been powered by partnership: by employers opening up their world, volunteers sharing honest stories, educators creating space in busy timetables and venues welcoming us in. Over the years, that community has included our sponsors Netcompany, Enlivio Health, Sulzer, Currys, E.ON, Tokamak Energy, Asda, SCC, Grainger Hub and the University of Westminster, alongside many other businesses, schools, colleges, universities and regional partners that have given their time, expertise and belief. Putting nearly 3,000 young women on the path into tech.  

I am grateful to every organisation that has designed a workshop, provided a speaker, hosted a session, encouraged a colleague to volunteer or helped a young person imagine a different future. The variety matters. Technology is not one job or one route; it reaches into retail, energy, engineering, public services, finance, health, creative industries and almost every part of modern life. Our partners make that reality visible. 

Why the work still matters 

There are reasons to be hopeful, but there is no room for complacency. In 2025, girls made up only 22.6% of GCSE Computer Science entries, even though 35.7% of girls taking the subject achieved the highest grades, compared with 27.8% of boys. At university, women and non-binary students accounted for only 23% of Computer Science students in 2022–23. Across the wider UK STEM workforce, women represented around 25% in 2025, and only 23% of roles in high-growth fields such as engineering and programming.  

These figures tell us that ability is not the issue. The challenge is participation, confidence, visibility and access. Too many girls still encounter technology as something that belongs to somebody else. Girl Tech challenges that idea at a critical point, connecting young people directly with the people doing the work and showing them that there is no single way to belong in this sector. 

My hope for the next decade 

As I look ahead, my dearest hope is that, in 10 years’ time, we will no longer need Girl Tech events. I hope the gender divide in the technology workforce will have narrowed so substantially that girls will not need a special invitation to picture themselves there. They will see women designing, building and leading at every level. Computer Science classrooms will look more like the communities they serve, and opportunity will not depend on whether a young person happens to meet the right role model at the right moment. 

Until then, I am proud that we keep creating those moments. This Friday will be my final Girl Tech event and my final event with Ahead Partnership. Leading the programme and seeing it move from a local event to a national programme of inspirational partnerships has been the highlight and proudest achievement in my career. Girl Tech Plus is our final event of 2026, but it is not an ending. It is another step towards the future we want to see, one in which every young person can explore technology with curiosity, confidence and a genuine sense that they belong.