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Asidua tackles gender imbalance in IT

28th June 2006

Belfast, Northern Ireland [June 28, 2006]: Asidua has hosted the first "Computer Clubs for Girls" (CC4G) visit in Northern Ireland as part of an initiative to encourage more females to take up careers in IT. Female members of Asidua’s technical team hosted a workshop for pupils from Grosvenor Grammar School to explain how they decided on an IT career. The pupils also had the chance to experiment with some examples of Asidua’s cutting edge work.

Computer services grew by 14 per cent last year but despite this progress the gender divide does not seems to be narrowing. Whilst Northern Ireland, with a 31 per cent female representation in the current workforce, exceeds the UK figure of 20 per cent, there is still considerable room for improvement.

Angela Canavan, Chief Operating Officer, Asidua, commented, “The statistics show that females are significantly under represented within the Northern Ireland ICT sector. So when Momentum approached us about hosting a workplace visit we responded with great enthusiasm. The girls from Grosvenor seemed to really enjoy the visit, so we hope to repeat the format with other schools when the new term starts in September.”

Momentum, the Northern Ireland ICT Federation who has co-ordinated this initiative, is pleased to be working in partnership with e-skills UK, the Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms to manage and deliver CC4G programme in Northern Ireland. e-skills UK developed the award-winning4 CC4G programme specifically to attract more females to what it terms ‘an exciting and rewarding career’.

Momentum acknowledges other key stakeholders, namely the financial support provided by the European Social Fund – Peace 11 Programme and DEL to enable this pilot to be offered free to participating schools. The support and assistance of C2k in ensuring a smooth transition of the product onto the Northern Ireland schools must also be noted.

Photo Caption: (pictured left to right) Ana Horta, Grosvenor Grammar School Pupil, Helen Taylor, Project Manager with Momentum, Angela Canavan, Chief Operating Officer with Asidua and Patricia Wilson, Principal Engineer with Asidua.