Girls uninspired by IT careers

[Acorn Newsbot]

Nominet UK, the not-for-profit internet organisation best known running for the .uk infrastructure, today announces the findings of its REBRAND:IT research with 2,008 13-24 year old students. Key findings of the research point to the fact that IT has a reputational issue with girls who view potential career paths as technical, male-dominated, and are left feeling uninspired by the subject at school.

Only around half as many females who have received IT training (7%) as males (13%) felt their ICT education was ‘excellent’, and again almost half of females (13%) compared to males (24%) report being ‘inspired’ to consider a career in IT by their teachers. Almost two thirds of girls (65%) report that their ICT education had no impact on their IT career aspirations at all.

Preconceptions about careers in IT are mixed: on the positive side, more females think a career in IT is exciting (17%) and cutting edge (36%) than boring (11%), but half (50%) believe that this career path would be very technical. On the whole, males had a more positive view of the attributes of a career in IT, scoring slightly but significantly higher on their perceptions as to the pay, working environment, opportunities for progression and so on of a career in IT. Interestingly whilst 40% of females felt that a career in an IT company would be ‘male dominated’, only 14% of males shared the view.

Less than a third as many female students (10%) report being interested in careers in IT compared to male students (33%), although female students do aspire to careers with well-known technology brands such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google compared to other types of business. More than three quarters (78%) of females would be interested in working for tech companies compared to just 13% choosing from a list including BA, Coca Cola, Ford & Nike.

Lesley Cowley OBE, CEO of Nominet, commented: “It’s great to see that young women are attracted to the idea of working for well-known technology companies. However, the overall image of IT careers still need something of a rebrand. A career in IT can mean much more than a technical role. For the benefit of the digital economy, those of us in the industry, education and government need to work together to help inspire and cultivate greater balance and equality in schools and in the workforce.”

Susan Vinnicombe OBE, Director of the Cranfield International Research Centre for Women Leaders commented: "This research shows that girls still lag behind boys in their interest in IT. Girls need to see some inspiring female role models leading the way."

Karen Price, CEO of e-skills UK comments: “We know that girls start to form negative perceptions of IT careers at a surprisingly young age. All the work we do is designed to show them how working in IT is exciting, challenging and rewarding and developing their IT skills could help them pursue a career in almost any field from music or journalism to business or sport. .”

Nominet announces competition to win sponsorship of e-skills UK Computer Clubs for Girls

To further support the education and develop of the female workforce in ICT, Nominet today announces its plans to sponsor 12 Computer Clubs for Girls (CC4G), run by e-skills UK. Schools across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are invited to email [email protected]*in just 200 words why their school deserves to have a CC4G for a year. Nominet will contribute activities to online training programmes with activities including designing websites for a fan page or an imaginary business and creating viral videos as part of an exercise to envisage what will be the next internet trend to sweep the nation. Nominet will additionally donate time to facilitate some of the club sessions.






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