IT: Geeky or Cool?
In this video, Cisco’s Silka Patel shares the story of attending Skills Scotland Glasgow where female students were asking about the skills and experiences they need to enter a career in STEM. Click on the image below to watch the video.
The UK is heavily reliant on developing and sustaining the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) industry for future growth. Yet the country is currently facing an annual shortfall of 40,000 STEM graduates as each year, around 22% of UK-domiciled graduates studying STEM go into non-STEM occupations. As women and minorities are under-represented in IT (70% of UK females with science, engineering or technology qualifications are not working in these professions), many have proposed increasing the participation of these underrepresented groups as a solution to this skills crisis.
The common perception is that girls aren’t interested in STEM careers because they perceive it as a community of social outcasts, nerds and geeks. Or do they? Attending a recent Skills Scotland Glasgow event, Silka Patel was pleasantly surprised to learn that young women were confident that they wanted to go into STEM but didn’t know how to navigate their career paths to get there and were eager to learn about the skills and experiences needed to enter the world of programming, social media, IT and gaming.
Are we assuming that young women are not considering STEM careers and do we need to do more to support women who are interested in STEM careers? Click on the image above to hear Silka’s thoughts.
