Our very first cohort of women
At TechPixies we recognise that women require confidence in order to go back to work in fulfilling, stimulating careers, to upskill or to start a business.
We believe one of the best ways to gain confidence and therefore choice over your future is through education.
Our Social Media Magic Course will help you to upskill and discover your sparkle!
The Problem We Are Solving
TechPixies recently published The Confidence Gap Report which reveals the truth about women going back to work after a career break. We asked 1000 working women what impact time out of the workplace had on their career. It is clear that there is work to be done across three main areas: Confidence, Earning Power and Job Satisfaction.
24%
of women feel that lack of confidence is their greatest stumbling block when returning to work
42%
of women returning to work earn less than they did before they took a career break
46%
of women describe their work as simply a ‘means to an end’ and one in ten describe their work as beneath their ability
The Story So Far
⭐ 2020-2021 We won ‘Digital Course of the Year’, launched a book club and our PROGRESSION Membership
In March 2020, TechPixies was awarded ‘Digital Course of the Year’ by Digital Women and in May 2020 was recognised by We Are The City as a Rising Star. During the COVID lockdown, we ran a free training programme which more than4,000 women signed up to and as a result were featured in The Times. We also launched the Joy Book Club, our Social Media Superhero Bootcamp and a follow on membership to our Social Media Magic Course called PROGRESSION. PROGRESSION is all about helping women who have completed the Social Media Magic Course to set 90-day goals and progress towards them with extra coaching and peer-led learning and support.
⭐ 2018-2019 We expanded our TechPixies reach by making our courses available online and became CPD members!
In 2018, TechPixies raised £150k of female-led investment and in doing so we were able to move the full TechPixies programme online. In the spring of 2019, we launched our fully revamped online-only signature course Social Media Magic. In 2018, TechPixies won a suite of awards including Women in Business Startup of the Year 2018, the IoD Startup Director of Year for London and the South. TechPixies Founder Joy Foster was named to Grant Thornton’s 100 Faces of the Vibrant Economy.
⭐ 2016-2017 Crowdfunding, a visit from the Prime Minister and our first major award!
We became a Limited Company and we won an UnLtd ‘Grow it’ Award. We also ran a successful Crowdfunding Campaign and received a special visit from the Prime Minister, Theresa May. Our crowning achievement was being named Enterprise Nation’s Female Startup of the Year 2017. Our founder, Joy Foster, was the highly commended ‘Women’s Champion’ at the Social Enterprise UK Awards.
⭐ 2015 We launched our Pilot Face to Face Project in Oxford
TechPixies launched in 2015 as a pilot project funded by Better Broadband for Oxfordshire and the Oxfordshire County Council who distributed a Government Equalities fund with an aim of helping women return to work with improved tech skills. We initially worked with 12 women, and had wild success with all 12 women returning to work or launching a business in some capacity following the pilot.
Who is Joy Foster?
Since 2015, Joy Foster has led TechPixies on a mission to help thousands of women upskill with social media in order to return to work, change careers or start a business. TechPixies, and Joy herself, have been recognised nationally for the work she is doing.
Most recently, in 2020 Joy was named one of 100 Women of Inspiration by Pioneers Post and NatWest as well as Editor’s Choice for the WeAreTheCity Rising Star Awards. Her signature course, Social Media Magic was named Course of the Year 2020 by Digital Women.
When the global pandemic hit the UK in March of 2020, Joy set up and ran multiple free training programmes to help women quickly upskill with modern technology. Over 4,000 women have now participated in this free training programme and it was featured in The Times.
TechPixies was also profiled in Forbes for raising £150,000 and Stella Magazine for breaking down barriers for women wanting to re-ignite their careers and in April 2019, TechNation named TechPixies ‘one to watch’ in the EdTech space.
In 2018, Joy won the Startup Director of the Year for London and the South and was the only female finalist in the national award. Her business, TechPixies was named Women in Business Startup of the Year 2018 and Enterprise Nation Female Startup of the Year 2017.
Joy is a Mum of 2. Her husband is Tim Foster MBE; he won the Coxless 4 Rowing Gold Medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Joy loves sports herself and was a member of the US Archery Team from 2004-2007. She has run 3 marathons, competed in Ironman Wales and won a Gold Medal at Women’s Henley in 2001. The Fosters live in Oxford, England with Asteroid the cat.
TechPixies Core Values
The values embraced by TechPixies can be found in the word SPARKLE
SPAR = Supportive, positive, authentic relationships (with women)
KL = (who are) Keen to Learn
E = (and want to be) Empowered
Supportive, positive, authentic relationships mean that we care personally about every woman who comes through our courses. They are not just a number or a sale, they are real women with real lives and concerns and hopes and fears about their futures. That doesn’t mean that we are right for everyone, but that we treat everyone with respect.
SUPPORTIVE: We are there to support, but not solve problems, we rely on life coaching to help empower women to come up with their own solutions.
POSITIVE: We maintain a positive persona in our teaching and in our groups. If/when we struggle with maintaining positivity, life coaching is often a solution. TechPixies acknowledges that being positive is harder than being negative and so it is important to address personal circumstances and or concerns internally or externally that may be causing negativity with our own team as well as the women going through our programmes.
AUTHENTIC: We are real, and honest and willing to tell the truth and challenge things we don’t agree with if it is not done in a harmful way. There is no room for pretence or ego or inauthenticity. This may also mean that some women (students or staff) don’t feel comfortable as a part of TechPixies and that is ok, we wish them well and will always endeavour to sign post them appropriately.
KEEN TO LEARN: Our team, our Social Media Coaches and our women are all keen to learn and regularly invest in themselves.
EMPOWERING: Our courses empower women to embrace modern technology and take control of their own decisions/actions which affect their future. We aim to empower women to have a better sense of self worth, both personally and financially and help them visualise and then create a brighter future for themselves and their families (if applicable).
Learn with TechPixies
There are several ways to learn with TechPixies. Find out more below…
Learn for Free!
We have a series of ‘freebies’ which people can download from our Free Resources page.
Sparkle and Thrive Podcast
We have a podcast which is filmed LIVE on Fridays at 10:00am BST/GMT. When we interview an American guest, we film it LIVE on Thursdays at 8pm BST/GMT. The live feed can be found on the TechPixies Facebook Page and the Podcast itself and links to the Google Play and Apple store can be found on the Podcast page on our website.
Joy Book Club
The Joy Book Club is a free monthly Zoom meeting with Joy Foster, the founder of TechPixies, in which we interview authors and discuss books related to returning to work, changing career or starting a business. We’re wrapping up the book club, but you can still get access to all of our previous interviews and Joy’s reading list here.
Social Media Success eBook
Social Media Success is Joy’s book which was written to help women get started on their journey returning to work, changing careers or starting a business. The book is currently being revised but will be available later in 2021.
Social Media Superhero Bootcamp
The Social Media Superhero Bootcamp is our 4-part training series which we run LIVE a couple of times per year. We typically run this programme along with a pop-up Facebook group! At the moment we are offering our self-paced bootcamp and you can sign up here.
Social Media Mastery Transformational Membership
Social Media Mastery is our Transformational Membership Programme where we go deep on learning how to leverage 5 different social media networks. Women who do the Social Media Mastery programme also learn about strategy, MailChimp, podcasting and WordPress. Not currently open for enrolments.
PROGRESSION annual membership
PROGRESSION is our follow on Membership to Social Media Mastery Students. It is aimed at helping women progress from learning knowledge to applying it. In PROGRESSION, we have 2 advanced coaching calls per month as well as peer-led teaching. Our curriculum focuses on setting and working towards achieving 90-Day goals.