Equity, diversity and inclusion
Equity, diversity and inclusion as standard; that’s a shared common goal for our industry. Yet women account for only 20% of IT specialist; and IT Professionals from an ethnic minority background are less likely to be in senior roles, despite being better qualified.
Like many other industries, there are complex and wide-ranging challenges we need to address. At BCS we are committed to improving equality, diversity and inclusion together with the rest of the industry.
BCS commitments
- Over the past three years we have been listening to our members and set up new specialist groups that supports underrepresented groups within the industry. Have a look at the work they have been doing and how to get involved: EMBRACE, Pride SG, NeurodiverseIT, Digital Divide SG.
- BCSWomen continues to provide support for female IT professionals, as well as mentoring and encouraging women and girls into tech careers.
- Black women have been identified in our research as the most underrepresent group working in tech. To support this, BCS provides Coding Black Females (CBF) with 100 bursaries per year for our membership.
- As part of the partnership with CBF, BCS & CBF came together to produce a report which looks at the issues black women face in tech or trying to get into a tech career. Read the report here.
- BCS is an active member of the Tech Talent Charter.
- Education is a key area for BCS in our efforts to enrich the pipeline with diverse talent and we are seeing results, in England, the number of female candidates for computing A level has grown by 92% since 2019, and males by 62%, but despite our own and industry efforts, 94% of girls drop computer science at the first opportunity, around 20% percent of the tech workforce is female with Black Women making up 0.7% of the total.
- At BCS we are committed to ensuring all our events and member communities are truly representative of the profession.
BCS’s slogan is ‘Making IT good for society’, therefore it is our responsibility, as the professional body for IT, to ensure the chartered professionals in our industry are representative and diverse, especially as the future talent pipeline emerges.
Articles, papers and reports
Take a look at our most recent papers and reports, or view all of our published policy papers.
Join in
Discover BCS membership! You will be joining a thriving community of IT professionals and benefits include access to regular events, conferences, meetings, as well the chance to join our members’ groups such as EMBRACE.
Share your support
BCS regularly polls IT professionals and members on topical issues. Our surveys are one way that we listen to our members’ opinions and this helps to form our positions on major areas of public policy. Keep a look out for polls around diversity and inclusion.
Explore our other priorities
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