This week’s UKTN Podcast guest is Dr Claire Thorne, co-CEO of Tech She Can, who discusses her expectations from the next government to revamp the education curriculum for technology roles.
Thorne also addresses the various factors that impact why girls don’t get into STEM, why a third of women are leaving the sector and the importance of investors being more conscious of who they’re investing in.
“We don’t need any more mentoring, women don’t need fixing, we don’t need any more roundtables, benchmarking, toolkits or data. We know what the problems are we know what works: we need funding, leadership and support,” Thorne tells the UKTN Podcast.
Thorne founded Tech She Can to help address the “nationwide” problem of too few women in technology roles. The aim of the charity is to see women play an equal role in creating and developing tech businesses, products, and services that will ultimately shape the world and make sure that tech works for everyone.
Thorne, who has a PhD in physics, is also a venture partner at Deep Science Ventures, a VC firm funding startups focused on pharmaceuticals, climate, agriculture and computation sectors.
Elsewhere, Thorne discusses the recent closure of Tech Talent Charter, a non-profit organisation set up to improve diversity and inclusion across the UK tech sector. She explains why she wasn’t surprised to hear the reason behind it – that organisations are “quiet quitting” diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Listen to the full episode here, along with all previous episodes of the UKTN Podcast.
The UKTN Podcast is sponsored by HSBC Innovation Banking, which offers flexible banking solutions for startups, scaleups, growth businesses, investors and those working towards IPO.
Throughout the series, the UKTN Podcast speaks to some of the key movers and shakers from UK tech. We’ll learn growth strategies from both seasoned and up-and-coming founders, hear market sentiments from investors, and question policymakers on the decisions impacting the country’s innovation economy.
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