Microsoft Malta today hosted an ICT Career Day for young female students aged sixteen and over as well as university students who had the opportunity to meet leading local ICT organizations to understand their business and their career opportunities. During the event at the Microsoft Innovation Center at Skyparks, a number of female ICT professionals were on site, sharing their career experiences to encourage those young females pursuing a career in ICT.
Women and girls are extremely underrepresented in science and technology in the developing and developed world. Latest figures show that in the United States for example, only 18% of computer science degrees are earned by women and only 22% of software engineers at technology companies are women. Microsoft research is also committed to bridging the gender gap in computing careers. The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2018 there will be 1.4 million open technology and computer science jobs in the United States, but only 29% of the applicants will be women.
“There exists an opportunity divide especially amongst our youth – a gap between those who have the access, skills and opportunities to be successful and those who do not. Closing this opportunity divide is one of the most important actions we can all take to secure the future of our youth and the future of our global economy,” said Adrianna Zammit, Country Manager for Microsoft Malta in her address during ICT Career Day.
“While information and communications technology (ICT) play an important role in the empowerment of women around the world, women in developed and developing countries face challenges to training and access, which often limits their ability to reach their full professional potential. As an industry leader, Microsoft has a key role to play to help create an innovative business environment especially for youths. Our efforts are constantly being directed to empower youth to imagine and realize their full potential by connecting them with greater education, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities. We want to empower youth to change their world,” added Ms Zammit.
The event was also addressed by Hon Dr Edward Zammit Lewis, Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth who explaind how recent statistics in Malta show how more young students are opting to continue their education to upper secondary and university in recent years thus bridging the generational gap.
“If figures for females alone are considered, the education gap with the overall EU average becomes even narrower as over 79% of Maltese females attain an upper secondary or tertiary education compared with 83% for the EU. Assuming that this growth rate for Malta is sustained, it is clear that Maltese females will be the first to bridge this gap very soon, and will eventually surpass it. Even among the early school leavers, where Malta’s record has not been that good, females do better as only 18.6% drop out of formal education compared to 28.3% among males,” said Hon Zammit Lewis.
“Nonetheless, the fact that the female participation in the job market is still markedly low in absolute figures, indeed among the lowest in the EU, speaks volumes about what a vital knowledge pool females represent to the Maltese economy, and the enormous room for positive growth if more females were to reach the job market. Government believes that ICT has a central role that can drive many sectors of the economy through the innovation it can bring to processes, products, services and quality of life improvements. ICT can be used intelligently and creatively to resolve real problems and increase productivity, so that enterprises can gain a competitive advantage in their markets.”
Commending Microsoft Malta and its partners for hosting this event, Hon Zammit Lewis described the ICT Career day as “well timed” and representative of an important milestone to increase awareness among ICT stakeholders about the importance of females taking up a career in ICT.
Today, on average only one in three of our ICT graduates are females, while just over one third of the gainfully employed in ICT are females. For an industry which contributes an average of 5% to national GDP, one of the highest in the EU, this “ICT gender gap” may be bridged by making ICT more attractive to our young students, especially our young female students.
The ICT Career Day was organized in collaboration with a number of companies who work closely with Microsoft namely Systec, Kinetix, Computime, Megabyte, iMovo, Demajo Group and Ice Malta who also attended the event and met the students and spoke to them about the opportunities that are available to students and on what it means working in the ICT world.
To help grow the next generation of women in computing careers, Microsoft operates a programme known as DIGIGIRLZ which focuses on four key actions to help bridge the gender gap namely reaching middle and high school girls with tools and programs, partnering with key organizations and top academic institutions to actively engage undergraduates and post-graduates in the field of computer science, raising awareness of the importance of events and mentorships and providing opportunities in computing.
As part of DIGIGIRLZ, the ICT Career Day included sessions with female professionals who already have a career in ICT who met the students and spoke to them about the importance and the need for more females choosing an ICT career.