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News
The Hg Foundation and FE fundinfo partner with Czechitas to support disadvantaged women retraining into tech careers
London, United Kingdom, 20 January 2025 – FE fundinfo, a leading financial data company connecting the investment industry, and The Hg Foundation, a grant-giving charity focused on improving tech education and skills, are pleased to announce a new partnership with Czechitas, a non-profit organisation in the Czech Republic which works to improve digital skills among women and young people.
According to Eurostat, 90% of ICT specialists in the Czech Republic are men. Meanwhile, 76% of Czech businesses with ICT vacancies struggle with finding the right talent. Czechitas works to mobilise the valuable workforce potential of women through IT training and job fairs. Support is prioritised for single mothers, women who could not afford to go to university, and women who have fled the war in Ukraine and are struggling to find work.
In alignment with its mission to improve tech education and skills, The Hg Foundation will build on FE fundinfo’s existing support for Czechitas. The Foundation’s €14,500 grant will enable the non-profit to run two digital academies and a job fair in 2025. 70 students will be supported through the digital academies, which consist of 130 hours of technical instruction. To date, 60% of women who have who completed the Digital Academies course have found new jobs in IT and 55% report a salary increase.
In addition, the grant will support two women through long-term online coding courses, through the Czechitas Endowment Fund. 14 women have so far completed fully funded courses through this offering and 71% have gone on to secure jobs in ICT. The key markers of the programme’s success will be the number of women going on to secure full-time roles in tech and IT within 12 months of the programme, and average wage gains after the programme.
We are very grateful for this vital support from The Hg Foundation and FE fundinfo. We will be able to support more women to retrain for IT jobs, as well as funding retraining courses for students from disadvantaged backgrounds who would never otherwise be able to afford them. We will change the lives of women and their families, and young girls in the Czech Republic will gain new role models.
FE fundinfo is thrilled to collaborate with The Hg Foundation in supporting Czechitas, a charity dedicated to empowering women in technology in the Czech Republic. This partnership aligns perfectly with our core values of Trust, Connectivity and Innovation, and we are enthusiastic about contributing to the development of digital skills and opening new career opportunities for women. Together with The Hg Foundation, we aim to make a significant impact by fostering an environment where female talent can thrive and drive innovation in the tech industry.
We are delighted to be supporting Czechitas’ work to enable low-income and disadvantaged women to retrain into IT roles. The programme provides a valuable solution to skills shortages in key areas while making the sector more diverse. Unequal access to tech roles is both unfair and a significant waste of talent – so we are proud to support organisations that address this problem.
