ClearBank partners with Code First Girls to close Fintech’s gender gap by recruiting female coders

by James · March 17, 2023

ClearBank, the cloud-based banking platform, has today (Friday, March 17) announced a new effort to actively recruit female coders through a partnership with Code First Girls. The largest provider of free coding courses for women in the UK, Code First Girls’ impact doesn’t stop with education as they work with over 100 partners in the UK and globally to actively place women in technology roles.

Code First Girls has placed thousands of people in the tech industry, and these companies are seeing the impact of hiring a more diverse tech workforce. The benefits of actively recruiting women from non-technical backgrounds include creative problem solving for security threats, to performance improvements and innovation across all sectors.

ClearBank is joining forces with 30 other fintech and financial services firms, including Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley, NatWest, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, in partnership with Code First Girls. The financial sector is the largest and fastest growing share of Code First Girls’ client list, with fintechs and traditional banks looking to hire more women.

Analysis of the latest ONS workforce survey reveals significant gender differences in both the technology and finance industries. Women make up just 18% of computer programmers and software developers, web design professionals and data analysts in the UK. Code First Girls’ analysis also shows that women make up just 31% of UK brokers, financial analysts and advisers in the UK – 95,700 women against 203,800 men.

But in 2022 alone, Code First Girls provided 44,861 opportunities for women to learn to code, compared to just 6,450 women embarking on undergraduate computing degrees in the UK in 2022.

Anna Brailsford, CEO of Code First Girls, said:

“It’s fantastic to partner with ClearBank to support more women into the fintech industry and help them recruit female programmers into their team. There is currently a worrying gender gap, with many women facing significant barriers to entering STEM careers, entering school and continuing through life.

“Varied and diverse experiences and skills will only make both the technology and finance industries stronger, providing great opportunities for businesses as well as individuals themselves.”

Tom Harris, Chief Technology Officer at ClearBank said:

“As a business focused on driving transformation in the financial services industry, diversity in its many forms is critical to us, and ClearBank is committed to championing it. We are thrilled to partner with Code First Girls on this initiative, and help bring more women and non-binary people into technology roles at ClearBank.”