Update on Tech girls event - Central Coast NSW

A great article about the Tech girls event in September posted on the youth connections website. Reposted here. See original site for pics.

Thomson thinks pink in IT
Updated: 09-10-2009
“Girls should not be missing out,” said Federal member for Dobell Craig Thomson when opening this year’s Tech Girls. Centrally positioned between Sydney and Newcastle, Thomson believes Central Coast youth and especially girls need to identify the versatility of a job in the Information Technology industry as an alternative to commuting, “you can work from home or work remotely, it’s a really great attraction.”

Held at Mingara Recreation Club, Tech Girls is a Youthconnections.com.au event which speaks out against the male-labelled industry, inspiring high school girls to consider Information Technology and science-based subjects at school and a future career in IT.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, males make up 85% of all people currently employed in the IT industry. Youthconnections.com.au chair person and IT business owner, Dave Abrahams says more women need to dare to challenge the geek stereotype, “It is a cool sector but most people see it as a geek sector.”

Tech Girls has run annually for the past four years and since its inception Youthconnections.com.au statistics show a rise of 13% in female students selecting VET IT subjects compared to a 26% decrease for boys during the same time period.

This year 150 girls from 12 Central Coast schools attended, joined by eight key women speakers who ranged from a Software Engineer for Google to an Organisational Change Manager at Commonwealth Bank. These women and several IT businesses represented diversity and change in Information Technology, which was part of the event’s focus. Griffith University researcher and co-author of Tech Girls are chic (not just geek), Jenine Beekhuyzen gave a presentation about investigating the technologies people use to download music and said she loves working in IT, “I get to travel lots, I get paid well and I work in my pyjamas most of the time.”

Tech girl Bronwen talks about her experiences working in the IT industry....

Have a listen, and learn about the new Bachelor of Information Systems at Griffith starting in 2010. A great combination of technology and business skills.

Tech Girls 2009 - Central Coast of NSW

On the 22nd of September I was invited to be the keynote speaker for the 4th annual Tech Girls event on the Central Coast of NSW. The event is run by YouthConnections, who did a fabulous job!

It was a really great event, and Tech Girl Lauren presented too. Look forward to next year!

Robogals!

Robogals is a not-for-profit organization which aims to increase the number of girls undertaking science, engineering and technology courses at university. It has already been super successful in Melbourne and the UK. UQ has the opportunity to start up a chapter too! Robogals is run by university students like us who promote robotics to school girls. So, we'll have to opportunity to go round to schools, play with LEGO and just have some fun!

To start us off, there is a Robogals Bootcamp which will take place in the upcoming holidays (29 Sep - 1 Oct, 2009). We'll get an all-expenses paid trip to Melbourne, and get to hang out with other geek girls from all over Australia.

Please put in application so we can get the UQ chapter of Robogals up and running! Make sure to put in an application asap. If you know anyone else who might be interested, please pass this on (this is open to anyone studying at any level - undergrad or postgrad, and any discipline).

Here's the link to the application form.
www.robogals.org.au/application_form.html

For more information check out their website
www.robogals.org.au/index.html

More info on the Bootcamp?
www.robogals.org.au/bootcamp.html

Our Women, Our State Awards 2009

http://www.women.qld.gov.au/awards/

The deadline for submissions to this year's awards has been extended until this Friday, get your entries in!

2009 report on why girls still dont choose ICT

http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/specialreports/eun_white_paper_women_it.htm

really interesting report on the current skills shortage in Europe, and the attitudes of school girls in the 'pre' university years. It seems that the same reasons for not choosing ICT careers and study still apply (as we have known for some time) - lack of positive female role models, and lack of understanding of the types of ICT jobs and careers available.

A huge skills shortage is upon us, so the lack of females is negative in two main ways, they are an untapped resource that the industry needs, and women are also missing out on great career opportunities. This report shows the importance of informational resources such as Tech girls are chic :)

Tech girls book available on ThinkGeek.com!

The tech girls book is now available on ThinkGeek.com! Very exciting, the guys there are uber supportive of us Aussie gals, and gals in tech all over the world! So if you have any contacts in the US, feel free to promote it to them! xxx