Planning

Techfirst womens Programme

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

PlanningUpdate

13 Mar 2026 at 16:24

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Planning

12 Mar 2026 at 15:19

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology is in the planning stage of the Techfirst Women's Programme, targeting the digital and frontier technology sectors. This procurement, valued at £4,000,000, is classified under computer-related services (CPV 72500000) and encompasses services aimed at addressing systemic barriers facing women in the tech workforce. The programme's ambition is to increase women's participation, retention, and progression within tech roles across the UK, with a special focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The pre-procurement market engagement runs until 10:00 AM on 20 April 2026, and interested suppliers must register on Jaggaer for access. The project is situated in the UK, with delivery expected to commence by 31 July 2026 and potentially extend until 31 July 2028.

This initiative provides significant opportunities for businesses, especially SMEs, offering services in tech training and workforce development. Businesses specializing in digital instruction, workplace readiness training, and mentorship programs would find themselves well-positioned to contribute to this programme. The tender aims to enhance the representation and retention of women in tech roles, thereby providing related industries with a skilled workforce, reduced recruitment costs, and fostering regional innovation. SMEs could benefit from participating in this programme by gaining access to a trained contingent workforce, enabling them to adopt emerging technologies and strengthen their operational capabilities, aiding in their business growth within the digital economy.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

Techfirst womens Programme

Notice Description

The TechFirst Women's Programme is a UK Government workforce-development intervention designed to increase the participation, retention and progression of women in high-growth digital and frontier-technology sectors. Evidence shows that women remain structurally under-represented across the UK tech workforce, facing systemic barriers including biased recruitment practices, limited access routes, inflexible working patterns, and poor workplace cultures. At the same time, employers--particularly SMEs--are experiencing severe digital skills shortages across key frontier-technology roles, including AI, cyber security, advanced connectivity, semiconductors, quantum technologies and engineering biology. These labour-market failures are constraining innovation, productivity and regional growth, and disproportionately impact businesses unable to access or train technical talent. The programme will procure a women-focused training and deployment model delivering employer-aligned technical instruction, workplace-readiness training, wraparound pastoral support, and structured mentoring. This will enable a target of 300 women to progress into meaningful entry and mid-level roles in frontier-tech sectors. Training will be co-designed with employers to ensure alignment with real occupational needs in areas such as software engineering, cyber security, data engineering, cloud/DevOps, AI/ML operations and telecoms/network engineering. The programme should reduce the cost burden on SMEs, helping them to participate in the digital economy and adopt emerging technologies that would otherwise be inaccessible due to recruitment and training costs. The programme sets a target of 80% demployment into mid-career roles, and 20% deployment into early-career roles. The deployment phase will match participants to paid, high-quality technical roles, with pathway support throughout onboarding and early retention. Delivery partners may deploy a contingent-workforce approach, ensuring employment decisions into permanent roles remain open, merit-based and compliant with the Equality Act 2010. The programme sets a target for 80% of deployments to SMEs, with flexibility where regional or sector-specific SME demand is insufficient. This SME-first approach strengthens regional innovation ecosystems and ensures benefits flow to the parts of the economy facing the most acute hiring barriers. The expected benefits of the programme include increased representation of women in frontier-tech roles; improved retention through structured mentoring and culture-focused employer support; expanded domestic early-career pipelines; enhanced SME digital adoption; and reduced reliance on international recruitment for mid-career tech roles. By addressing systemic inequality and market failure, the TechFirst Women's Programme delivers a targeted, evidence-based intervention that strengthens the UK's technology workforce, boosts regional economic resilience, and supports long-term productivity growth.

Planning Information

Event (PA23 timetable) Date and time Pre-procurement issued 12/03/2026 Pre-procurement closes 10:00 AM 20/04/2026 To access the link, the supplier needs to registered to Jaggaer https://beisgroup.ukp.app.jaggaer.com/go/47964984019CE7EF4C4C

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-0668a4
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/023192-2026
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

CPV Codes

72500000 - Computer-related services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£3,333,333 £1M-£10M
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
13 Mar 2026Yesterday
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
20 Apr 20262 months to go
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
30 Jul 2026 - 31 Jul 2026 24 hours
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planning
Lots Status
Planning
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW1A 2EG
Post Town
South West London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
St James's
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts. 

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