Women in IT

This year the shortfall in the number of qualified IT engineers in the European Union will hit 300,000. Despite the obvious need for skilled professionals in the sector, only 19% of the IT and telecommunications workforce is female. That situation does not appear likely to change soon, with only 10% of A Level Computer Studies students being women.

But one IT network specialist based in Yorkshire is proof that women and a career in IT mix perfectly well.

“It’s not exactly clear why so few women look for a career in IT” says Shirley Firth, Financial Director of Leeds-based SICL. “There is an unwarranted misconception that IT is a male domain and there is possibly not enough being done in schools and colleges to promote a career in the industry to girls and young women.  This is a shame as women are as equally suited to a career in IT as their male counterparts”.

Samantha Paylor, who graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University in summer 2009, believes a technical role in IT is well suited to the talents and qualities usually associated with the female of the species. Sam, 22, is the first woman to work for SICL in a technical role and she provides helpdesk support for clients.

Sam says: “I’m pretty new to the role but it’s going really well. I enjoy the technical side of the industry. Trouble shooting and solving problems for customers means I can put my knowledge and interests in to practice.

“I became interested in IT through my computing lessons during high school. I found that I could pick it up quite easily and became more interested in the different areas and aspects of computing. I then decided that this is the career path that I wanted to follow due to the wide variety and nature of the industry.”

Whilst Sam is SICL’s only female technician at present, Shirley Firth is keen to attract more women to the business.

Shirley is one of five female employees at SICL, which is an SME with 30 staff. The ratio of female employees is unusually high in the industry. SICL’s focus on employee participation – the business is an Investors in People exemplar – makes it a popular place to work and staff retention rates are well above the industry average.
“We would love more women to apply for technical roles with us. They have the skills and the abilities to do the work well. Plus, that balance in gender in the business brings added advantages because women bring a different perspective to our teams and how we work.”

Carrie Williams is another example of an SICL employee who is making a success of an IT career.

Carrie started at SICL in 2006 in a sales and business development role. Nine months later, her passion for conservation led to her spending six months in Fiji working on a project. When she came back to the UK two years ago, she took up SICL’s offer to rejoin the business and re-trained in a Project Management role.

She says: “I manage the implementation of our projects for clients. I help manage the installations to time and budget. “That’s very important for our customers and makes mine an important role with the business.

“It’s challenging but women generally are good Project Managers. We are good planners, think logically and are good communicators. These skills are ideal for a project management role in IT.”

Shirley, who spent a period of her career in manufacturing, says the predominance of men in the profession should not act as a bar to women. “In my experience IT is a more male dominated industry than manufacturing. We can change that though, as our business is demonstrating.” She says.

“I would like to see schools and colleges do more to encourage women to explore technology as a career because there’s absolutely no reason why they should not be able to succeed in the technical roles.

“The industry has a great need for skilled people. Encouraging more girls and young women to bring their skills and qualities to the sector would be a good starting point in addressing that shortfall in numbers.”