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If we want an equitable digital future, we must design it
In the technology sector, there is a tendency to rely on the hiring pipeline of digital talent to begin moving the dial on digital equity, but that approach is fundamentally reactive. By the time we wait for job opportunities to begin bridging the gaps, inequality has often already calcified. This is where ESG must evolve from reporting metrics to shaping markets.
Too often, our sector congratulates itself on diverse hiring targets while ignoring the structural barriers that determine who gets the chance to apply.
If we want a more equitable future, we must design it, intentionally and systematically – starting in the classroom, reinforcing it with the right digital skills, and embedding confidence long before the workforce pipeline begins. That is what true digital transformation demands.
At ITS, a rapidly growing B2B wholesale fibre provider, we have made a conscious decision to lead in this space – not simply through our services but through the social value infrastructure that underpins them. Our work demonstrates why digital transformation must begin in the classroom and scale through grassroots community action if we are serious about building digital confidence.
From the Classroom: Designing Exposure
Digital exclusion does not begin at the point of employment; it begins at the point of exposure.
A survey conducted by EUK Education revealed that 90% of teachers said they faced barriers in providing STEM engagement activities, showing that both funding (59%) and time (49%) were the biggest restraints, along with difficulty in locating organisations to work with (20%). This data presents a clear call to action: private tech organisations must proactively bridge the gap – not waiting to be invited in but deliberately embedding themselves into the education ecosystem.
ITS has prioritised this activity, undertaking several classroom-led initiatives across the UK.
Case Study: Careers Fairs
Over the past 12 months alone, colleagues from across ITS have participated in six local school careers fairs across our network footprint. These events are a vital opportunity to showcase the diversity of careers available in tech, with representation across the business. The events allow us to demonstrate that careers in STEM are not monolithic. They require diverse skill sets - from engineering and cybersecurity to marketing, finance, and customer success – and offer meaningful, creative career paths. Our role is visibility and normalisation: ensuring young people can see themselves in roles they may never have previously encountered.
Designing Representation
A recent study by PwC said that 78% of female students couldn’t name a famous female working in technology – showing that more work must be done to highlight women in technology roles at a classroom level. If representation is absent at school age, recruitment strategies alone will never correct the imbalance. Encouraging more women into technology begins with demonstrating – early and visibly – that they belong there. 1
Case Study: InnovateHer
ITS partners with InnovateHer, an organisation on a mission to get women and girls into tech, starting from school age. This partnership reflects our belief that systemic change requires collaboration.
In partnership with InnovateHer, ITS’s support through school assemblies, work experience placements and mentoring has reached more than 3,000 students – reshaping perceptions of how women enter the sector, broadening awareness of the roles available, and reinforcing why diversity of thought is fundamental to building resilient, innovative technology businesses.
Case Study: Women in ITS programme
Within our own workforce, we must go further to enhance representation. External advocacy must be matched by internal accountability. That stems from ensuring there’s diversity across age, gender and seniority. That is why we have established a robust Women in ITS programme to provide clear pathways for growth, mentorship, training, and leadership exposure, and to foster a culture and network of transparency, support and inclusiveness. As we scale, programmes like this are not optional initiatives – they are structural commitments that ensure growth does not dilute equity.
Designing Access
The final ingredient to designing a more equitable digital future is providing the basic tools to that digital ecosystem. While many think of digital access tools as devices, basic computer literacy and digital education, the foundational enabler is connectivity. Providing reliable, scalable connectivity is the base ingredient for all digital access tools, and the primary way to ensure no one is left behind in a digital world is ensuring access to it. Yet historically, high-quality connectivity has come at a premium, creating structural barriers to digital confidence. Without this foundation, conversations about digital careers are fundamentally incomplete.
Case Study: Free Community Hub Connection
To combat this issue, ITS leverages its extensive network footprint of business-grade fibre and provides free community hub connections across its joint venture locations: LCR Connect and Digital Greenwich Connect. Coupled with hyper-local digital skills building initiatives delivered in partnership with regional councils, this approach ensures communities have access to the essential building blocks of digital confidence: connectivity, capability, and opportunity. This is ESG in action – environmental infrastructure, social mobility and economic resilience working in tandem.
In summary, digital equity is built upstream.
It is not an HR initiative. It is not a CSR afterthought. It demands intentional design, collaboration, and industry leadership from the private sector to reach into schools and communities and ensure we’re building the right platforms for the next generation of tech talent to thrive. The real question is not whether we can recruit more diverse digital talent. It is whether we are bold enough to design the conditions that allow that talent to emerge, develop and thrive long before a job description is ever written.
As sector leaders, that responsibility sits with us.
About the campaign
techUK’s TechTogether campaign continues with a focus on ‘equity by design'. Our insights this week focus on the importance of inclusive design in product development, creating technology that is accessible to people with disabilities, tackling affordability, connectivity, and digital skills gaps through cross-sector partnerships and community-led initiatives, and, ensuring public services are co-designed with disabled, ethnic, and older users.
TechTogether - Week 3
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