TEACHING mums tech skills and helping them back into work has won an Oxford business woman a national award.

TechPixies founder Joy Foster was named Female Start-up of the Year at the Enterprise Nation Festival of Female Entrepreneurs on Friday.

Ms Foster said: “It’s very exciting because our entire team was unemployed before they started working for us – they were all women at home with children.

“We trained them and employed them, so it has been amazing.”

She added: “We are proving you can run a successful company with women who work part time and who do a great job of job-sharing.”

Since it was launched two years ago, TechPixies has helped 46 women using a mix of classroom and practical learning, workplace experience and confidence-boosting sessions.

By mid-2022, it aims to have retrained 1,500. The social enterprise, based in Oxford, targets women who have taken career breaks to care for children and sessions are scheduled to fit in around school hours.

The 11-strong team, headed by mother-of-two Ms Foster, includes former TechPixies.

Funds from Better Broadband for Oxfordshire, backed by the Government Equalities Office via Oxfordshire County Council, helped launch the first course in 2015.

TechPixies raised £7,000 in May via crowdfunding and in the same month was visited by Prime Minister Theresa May, who praised its work.

It recently announced courses will take place in Bicester, Banbury and London.