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<p>The UK Digital Strategy set out our commitment to enabling a more diverse digital
workforce. As the digital revolution progresses, many more jobs will require digital
skills and many more tech roles will be created, both in technology companies and
in the general economy. We cannot afford for certain groups of people, including women
and people from ethnic minority backgrounds, to be excluded from or unable to progress
within these roles.</p><p> </p><p>While there is substantial progress that still needs
to be made by technology companies to improve the gender and racial diversity of their
staff, there are also significant industry-led initiatives aiming to solve the issue.</p><p>
</p><p>Over 290 companies, from international tech giants right through to start-ups,
SMEs and charities have already signed the Tech Talent Charter - an industry led initiative,
supported by Government. The Charter gives organisations tangible actions and principles
they can adopt to change their hiring and retention practices to become more gender-diverse
and commits signatories to measuring the diversity profile of their UK employees and
to share this data for (anonymous) collective publication in an annual report.</p><p>
</p><p>There are also other industry-led programmes doing valuable and innovative
work to help more women, ethnic minorities and other under-represented groups into
tech, such as the #SheMeansBusiness initiative (by Facebook in collaboration with
Enterprise Nation and FSB); the FDM Getting Back to Business programme; Fujitsu UK’s
work on developing diverse role models within their workforce, and Backstage Capital,
which is committed to investing in start-ups with diverse founders.</p><p> </p><p>We
are also engaging with the work of organisations such as UK Black Tech and other organisations
active in improving ethnic diversity in tech, and have recently convened an industry
round table on inclusive technology in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineers.</p><p>
</p><p>Under new Government legislation over 10,000 employers reported their gender
pay gaps this year. We are now working with employers to help them understand their
gender pay gaps, and support them to put plans in place to tackle gaps. Government
is also currently consulting on the Ethnic Pay Gap and consultation responses will
inform future government policy on ethnicity pay reporting.</p>
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