More women, more flexibility needed in IT

Lia Timson
Thursday, 08 May 2008 08:28

IT People - Enterprise

Other initiatives such as mentoring programs and courses designed for teenage girls are also helping but Michelle Beveridge, chief information officer, IDP Education, a student placement agency with offices in 29 countries, says there’s still a long way to go.

Beveridge is also the chairman of Vic ICT for Women, an industry group aimed at promoting women’s participation in the industry.

She says only 16% of Victorian IT workers are female, even less (5.7%) hold managerial positions and the number of girls choosing to study IT at school is dwindling.

“We’re starting to see the younger girls starting to be interested in the programming and engineering side, but it’s still not enough. We are looking at what we can put together (to motivate) teachers towards IT, because if you can convert one teacher, you can convert a whole class,” Beveridge says.

Noblet says all these initiatives help if employers are willing participants.

“Employers can be part of that by teaming up with education institutions to make it happen and by backing it up with (workplace) flexibility,” he adds.