Ahead of International Women’s Day 2016 next week, a tech recruitment firm has launched a new initiative to inspire 5000 more women to pursue careers within technology roles in the UK by 2020.
In response to dwindling numbers of women in the tech sector – with just 17% of the workforce made up of females – Empiric’s Future Tech Girls campaign will work with education institutions and employers to place students into relevant work experience opportunities.
Research the barriers to entry for emerging female talent
Following research into the barriers to entry for emerging female talent, Future Tech Girls found a distinct lack of awareness of the opportunities and career paths available within the technology sector. In order to address this, the initiative will bring together UK companies – including RBS, JP Morgan, Hive, Softwire, VE Interactive, Output Studio, Blippar and Digital Catapult – as well as working groups and bodies including TechUK, Tech London Advocates and The Greater London Authority to educate and engage this target audience.
By the end of 2016 alone, Future Tech Girls aims to facilitate a minimum of 100 meaningful tech work experience placements for Year 10 girls (14 and 15 year olds) across London that are currently taking ICT or Computing at GCSE level.
Aiming to create a more balanced workforce
Sam Kamyar, Co- Founder of Future Tech Girls and Managing Director at Empiric, comments: “While the tech community is already making huge strides in addressing gender disparity across the sector, we aim for Future Tech Girls to add an extra dimension to the industry-wide mission to create a more balanced workforce. We don’t have a magic wand, but by working collaboratively with similarly-minded organisations, we can increase the number of women working in technology. By utilising Empiric’s skills and networks we can facilitate fulfilling and eye-opening work experience for young females at the point when they’re making critical decisions that will guide them on their vocational path.”
Roundtable on women in testing
In the January 2016 issue of TEST Magazine, you can read a full roundtable article discussing how to inspire more women to get into software testing.
“While, there are already a number of female role models for IT and software testing, including Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin, companies should look to recruit a more even balance of female to male employees, particularly at the higher levels to inspire and drive the next generation of female employees,” said Paula Cope, Global Head of QA, Tullett Prebon.
For software firms interested in reaching out to more women, Asia Shazad, QA Manager, Hotels.com, offered this advice: “attendance at Grad fairs, conferences, sponsored events, and meetups can help promote your organisation’s ethos on women in IT.”
Edited from press release by Cecilia Rehn.
