Women and Future Skills: A Programme That Works — and a Case for Funding What Comes Next
Description
Women and Future Skills PDA L7/8 Accredited Data Science programme - funded by UK Government and Dundee City Council
Wednesday day 17 June 2026 12.30pm – 1.30pm UK time (online) Free to attend
Open to Funders or grant bodies, Local authority leaders, Employers or HR leads, College or university partners, Policy makers or advisers, Regional development bodies, CSR or social impact leads
The strategic challenge
Scotland — and the UK more broadly — faces a well-documented future skills crisis. The digital economy is growing faster than the workforce can keep pace with. Yet women, and particularly women from underrepresented communities, remain significantly underrepresented in data, digital, and technology roles.
Workforce gap
Women hold fewer than 1 in 5 tech roles in the UK, a gap that widens at senior and specialist levels
Skills pipeline
Existing pathways into data and digital careers were not designed with women returners or career changers in mind
Economic cost
Underutilised talent is an economic loss — for individuals, employers, and regional economies
The Women and Future Skills programme was built as a direct response to this gap — co-designed with the communities it serves, and grounded in evidence about what inclusive, trauma-informed, skills-based learning actually looks like in practice.
About the programme
Developed and delivered by The Data Gals, NomadAlba Collective, and Code Division and funded by Dundee City Council with Support from Tay Cities, as part of the Future Skills Pathways (FSP) consortium, the Women and Future Skills programme equips women with the data, digital, and human skills they need to enter, re-enter, or advance in the modern workforce.
The programme combines technical skills development with the social and emotional foundations that determine whether learning actually translates into employment. It is trauma-informed, co-designed with learners, and delivered by practitioners who have lived experience of the barriers women face.
Impact data and learner testimonials will be shared live at the session.
Register to hear directly from the programme team — and from the data.
What you will hear at this session
The evidence base for the programme — what the research says about women, skills, and economic participation, and how the programme was designed to respond to it
The programme model — how it works, who it reaches, what it delivers, and what makes it different from standard digital skills provision
Outcomes and impact — learner progression, employment outcomes, and the wider economic and social return on investment
The case for future cohorts — what it would take to sustain, scale, and bring this programme to new regions and settingsTwo clear routes for your organisation to be part of what comes next
Ways to invest in future cohorts
Fund future cohorts
Support the continuation and growth of the programme as a funder or grant body. Your investment directly enables more women to access skills, employment, and economic agency.
For: grant bodies, charitable trusts, public funders, CSR programmes
Run it in your region or setting
Commission the programme to be delivered in your local authority area, college, employer setting, or community context. The consortium works with you to contextualise and co-deliver.
For: local authorities, colleges, universities, employers, regional bodies
Both pathways begin with a conversation. Attendees who register interest at the session will receive a dedicated follow-up from the FSP consortium within five working days.
This session is for you if you are a…
Funder or grant body
Local authority leader
Employer or HR lead
College or university partner
Policy maker or adviser
Regional development body
CSR or social impact lead
Your hosts
Katarina Svistseva@ Founder, The Data Gals | Mentor and Inclusive Recruiter of the Year | Mentorship Programme Lead
Award-winning advocate for women in data and tech, and the driving force behind The Data Gals' mentorship model. Katarina brings deep expertise in inclusive recruitment, career development, and building communities that sustain women through the full arc of their professional lives.
Bianca Peel: Founder and Director, NomadAlba Collective
Holistic learning designer and social enterprise leader, 20+ years experience, specialising in trauma-informed pedagogy, human skills development, and co-designed learning for underrepresented communities. HundrED SEL Education Ambassador and UN CSW69 Delegate.
Frank Duffy: Founder, Code Division
Digital skills specialist and co-designer of the Women and Future Skills programme, with expertise in applied technology education and building industry-relevant learning pathways for diverse audiences.
The evidence is in. The programme works. Now we need partners to take it further.
Register your free place now. Come ready to hear the case — and to ask what it could look like in your region or portfolio.
The Women and Future Skills programme is delivered by the Future Skills Pathways (FSP) consortium: The Data Gals, NomadAlba Collective CLG, and Code Division. For partnership and investment enquiries following this session, contact the FSP team directly.
Lineup
Katarina Svistseva
Founder, The Data Gals | Mentor of the Year and Inclusive Recruiter of the Year | Mentorship Programme Lead "Hi, I'm Kat. I'm an award-winning advocate for women in data and tech, and the driving force behind The Data Gals' mentorship model. Dedicated to empowering women in STEM and advancing diversity in the data industry. I'm on a journey to create opportunities, break barriers, and reshape the data and AI landscape. I bring deep expertise in inclusive recruitment, career development, and building communities that sustain women through the full arc of their professional lives."
Frank Duffy
Founder, Code Division - Digital skills specialist and co-designer of the Women and Future Skills programme, with expertise in applied technology education and building industry-relevant learning pathways for diverse audiences. Frank Duffy has spent over 20 years teaching programming and technology — in schools, colleges, and universities — and one question has followed him throughout: why do the same people always get left behind? That question led him to found Code Division, a Scottish social enterprise and Qualifications Scotland awarding body that has supported over 1,000 learners across six years. Most of them are women. Many are refugees. A significant number come from minority ethnic communities. Almost all had been failed or overlooked by the mainstream skills system before they walked through Code Division's door. "Hi I'm Frank. I've worked at every level of qualification design — from individual SQA programming units to a full MA programme for New College Lanarkshire and the work-based learning strand of the Graduate Apprentice Software Development programme at the University of Strathclyde. He has contributed to frameworks and units with SQA and Qualifications Scotland that are now used by centres across the country, including the very units that underpin Code Division's own Python and data programmes. Yet what really drives me is simpler than any of that. I believe that experience is knowledge, that practical skills deserve proper recognition, and that a qualification framework should be a ladder — not a wall." Frank is funny, direct, occasionally opinionated, and genuinely passionate about the people he works with. Come along and hear why he thinks the skills system needs to do better — and what that actually looks like in practice.
Bianca Peel
Founder and Director, NomadAlba Collective - a Scottish social enterprise working at the intersection of human skills development, trauma-informed wellbeing, and community wealth building. "Hi I'm Bianca, Born in South Africa to Scottish and Irish parents, I have lived and worked across Europe, the USA, and Australia before finding home in Helensburgh, Scotland. My career spans English language teaching and teacher education, Montessori pedagogy, STEAM and sustainability learning design, and creative arts therapy.I have served as Sustainability Learning Advisor for The Ocean Race and SEL and Human Skills External Expert for Future Focus 21c, and I am a co-founder of the Future Skills Pathways consortium. My passion for education and life long learning encompassed a collection of qualifications in Language Education for 11+, Montessori & Early Years Education 3-6, and Master Practitioner in Holistic Art Therapy (MPHAT). I also serve on international platforms including being a HundrED.org SEL Education Ambassador and Advisory Board Member and UN CSW69 Delegate, and bring decades of practice rooted in equity, empathy, and a deep belief in the transformative power of human skills. There is nothing soft about the essentials."
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