BEATING THE TECH SKILLS GAP
HOW DO CODE FIRST GIRLS HELP EMPLOYERS TO HIRE AND UPSKILL TECH TALENT?
By Isobel de Rozarieux
By 2025 there will be one qualified woman for every 128 tech roles, globally.
Let that sink in – we are entering a global digital skills shortage, with a diversity crisis at its core. As a result, organisations are establishing partnerships with education providers like Code First Girls, to build alternative career pathways for diverse individuals, bolstering their tech talent pipeline, and gaining a competitive advantage in the war on talent.
THE CODE FIRST GIRLS APPROACH
What does Code First Girls do?
Having taught over 150,000 women how to code for free, Code First Girls has built one of the most extensive talent pipelines for women and non-binary individuals for tech employers. We work with over 130 organisations worldwide as a tech education partner, offering tailored solutions for:
- Attracting diverse early-career and mid-career tech talent
- Upskilling and reskilling existing employees
- CSR / ESG initiatives investing in tech education for women
Finding Tech Talent
Building your profile
Our corporate partners sponsor women through our education, meaning that our digital training is 100% free for our community. We showcase these sponsorship opportunities on our website with detailed descriptions, so our community can apply for the education and job opportunities that suit them best.
Building a talent pipeline
Many employers want to build a pipeline of talent in a certain location around the world. We do that by providing women in that area with free introductory classes to learn key tech skills. Upon completion of an intro class, the best candidates will go on to apply for our CFGdegree. On completion of this training, they are often offered full-time work with their sponsor organisation.
Finding your next tech hires
The CFGdegree is our 16-week intensive training programme. Our team intelligently sift through applicants from within our community who suit your hiring needs. Whether it’s hiring graduates, career switchers, to employ in different divisions, skills areas or locations, we tailor our approach accordingly.
DID YOU KNOW?
Our refined sifting and matching process means that many of our clients experience 100% retention of women employees.
Interview and selection process
Once applications for the CFGdegree are closed, our partners then receive a shortlist of qualified women. Our partners then conduct their own interviews and choose who they want to offer the opportunity to. Choosing who to sponsor or hire is always their decision.
DID YOU KNOW?
Over 30% of our community have said they want career help with interviews and coaching. We offer bespoke coaching and interview training to all candidates to help boost their confidence in this process.
Hiring and onboarding
Many of our partners offer our community a full-time role upon the successful completion of the course. If that is the case, Code First Girls works closely with our partners to facilitate onboarding and mentorship.
Community impact
To learn more about the real-life impact of sponsoring women through our programs, check out some of our inspiring community stories here.
Upskilling Existing Employees
Upskilling with tech skills
Code First Girls can also upskill your current workforce in key future skills areas. This includes providing employees with opportunities to enrol in our introductory 8-week classes, or even sponsoring employees to pursue our CFGdegree helping them transition into new roles within your tech teams.
Progressing mid-level talent
There is also our Mid-Level Accelerator which enables companies to upskill or reskill existing tech talent into Mid-Level technical roles, driving progression opportunities and retention.
DID YOU KNOW?
When asked, 81% of our community who have career switched would have stayed in their roles if provided with upskilling opportunities.
Investing in women in tech through CSR
We share a common goal with all of our partner organisations – to bridge the gender gap in tech. So, even when some partners don’t have immediate hiring needs, they frequently opt to sponsor our programs to provide free learning opportunities to women in their local communities. This contributes to the development of a strong candidate pipeline for the tech industry, enhances employability, promotes social mobility, and ultimately helps transform local economies.
What types of businesses do Code First Girls work with?
Code First Girls is a trusted partner to over 130 companies, ranging from SMEs to enterprise organisations such as AWS, BT, Deloitte, NatWest and Skyscanner. You can find out more about our work with partners such as BT on our employer case studies page.
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH CODE FIRST GIRLS?
- Decide if you want to sponsor women, hire women or upskill existing employees
- Decide which level of talent you want to educate and hire – is it entry- or mid-level?
- Decide which region you want to focus on –this may be close to your office, national or international.
- Identify which skills you want to develop – this could be data, software, full-stack or product management, to name a few.
- Look at workforce planning needs and determine how many roles you are looking to fill
- Book a 1-2-1 consultation with the team to identify the most suitable programme for your requirements
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