Girl techies need better support

The government should do more to tempt women into IT training

The government needs to do more to attract women to the technology sector, according to the founder of the Axios ‘A’ Star Awards aimed at female students taking IT GCSEs and A-Levels.

Ailsa Symeonides, who launched the awards and is founder of IT service management specialist Axios Systems, said that when the awards started in 2001, she received government backing and ministers would attend the functions. “But we can’t get ministers interested now,” she added. “How can I get girls interested in IT if I can’t get ministers’ backing?”

Symeonides added that support from sponsors, which include Microsoft, IBM and Accenture, is a huge part of the success of the awards. “Our sponsors are much larger than Axios, and the girls can get work placements with them,” she said. “One of our previous winners now works at IBM. Schools now know about the awards and we get support from education authorities.”

However, according to the winners at this year’s ‘A’ Star awards, which took place in November, there is still a lack of information within schools about careers in the technology sector.

“Before the awards, I didn’t know much about IT careers,” said Chloe Brown, GCSE category winner. “I’ve had a chance to understand the opportunities now and I’m interested in working in the IT industry. I think the lack of girls going into IT is not due to a lack of interest or ability, but a lack of awareness of the opportunities.”

Schemes to increase the number of women working in IT education could also help encourage more girls to pursue technology subjects and careers.

“In my class, there were 15 girls and only one boy,” explained A-Level category winner Marie Therese Lee. “We had a female IT teacher who was really passionate and she inspired me to study the subject further.”

Although neither of the Axios ‘A’ Star winners has gone on to study technology at a higher level, both expressed an interest in a career in IT and argued their understanding of technology would also help in other roles. “In our course so far, we’ve been using computers and I’ve got a great interest in them,” said Lee. “It’s a great subject to study and it helps in other subjects as well.”