Female technology stars of the future were treated to a careers
event aimed at encouraging more women into what is a predominantly
male industry.
Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Scottish Resource
Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology organised
the "Your digital future" event that was held on Thursday 29
September in Edinburgh Napier University.
The event aimed to dispel the myth that technology jobs are "for
the boys" and encouraged female school pupils from across Edinburgh
to challenge stereotypes by considering a career in the
industry.
Malcolm Barron, SDS's Head of Operations for the region, said:
"Women continue to be massively under-represented in science,
technology engineering and mathematics jobs (STEM careers). Not
only is this limiting to the women themselves, but the skills
shortages in these fields are detrimental to economic growth.
"It has also been documented that when women do pursue a STEM
career, they often leave the role to move in to another
industry.
"The event we organised offered the opportunity for girl pupils
to hear from women who not only pursued a job in the technology
industry but who have gone on to have highly successful
careers."
The "Your digital future" event followed on from an Ofsted
report that highlighted the need to develop "better opportunities
for young women to meet professional women working in
non-stereotypical roles".
Among the school pupils attending the event was Royal High
School pupil, Jenny Martin who commented that it was: "Good to hear
about the career paths of the three speakers."
Fellow Royal High pupil, Soffi Keenan added: "It was really
interesting to meet the speakers and the other professionals during
the networking."
The professional women speaking at the event included senior
staff from IBM, Harvey Nash Plc and Interface 3.
Fiona Hunter, a Project Manager with technology company Sopra
Group, was also among those sharing her experience at the
event.
Fiona - who has a First Class Honours Degree in Applied
Computing from the University of Dundee - said: "I was very keen to
take part in this event and my company was delighted to support
me.
"Both Sopra Group and I are very aware of the need to encourage
people to think about a career in the IT sector. We need a good
strong channel of potential new recruits for the future and
particularly see the need to increase the numbers of females coming
through to offset the diminishing numbers who are currently
studying IT in our universities."
She added: "If my participation in the event enthuses a few
girls in to our industry then this will be a win/win for
everyone."
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