The falling number of young people entering the IT sector coupled with the growing number of technology specialists required to ensure the UK can compete on a global scale is forcing organisations to seek new ways of attracting more women to the industry as a means of plugging future skills gaps.

At a recent digital skills conference in London hosted by the Institution of Engineering and Technology and Equalitec, delegates were warned that by 2010 there will be a shortfall of 300,000 qualified IT staff, according to European Commission (EC) research.

Nancy Pascall, gender policy officer in the EC’s Information Society and Media division, said the lack of girls choosing engineering and technology degrees and opting to work in the IT sector was contributing to the expected shortfall.

In an effort to encourage more young women to consider pursuing IT careers, the EC has developed a Shadowing Day initiative. Unveiled as a pilot programme in March, the scheme involves girls aged between 14 and 16 following a female engineer for a day. The pilot saw female engineers working at five IT vendors across Europe, including Nokia, BT and Cisco, as well as Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, being shadowed for a day.

“We want to break down the stereotypes and show it’s fun to work in ICT. Three of the six girls involved in the pilot scheme chose to go on to study maths and physics, which they weren’t previously going to do,” Pascall said. “Firms should be frightened of a future with a shortage of engineers. A principle of good management is providing what is needed for tomorrow, today ­ and firms also get good publicity if they do a shadowing day.”

The EC hopes to attract 50 firms to the scheme this year ­ around 20 have signed up so far. Participating companies are required to identify female engineer role models within their organisation, and then contact local schools to identify suitable candidates and arrange a date for the shadowing event. The EC plans to collate photographs and video footage of the shadowing days into a booklet and film, which will be launched at the next International Women’s Day in March 2008.

Other experts speaking at the digital skills event argued that efforts to attract and retain women in the IT industry need to focus more on high-level skills. Elizabeth Pollitzer of Equalitec, a project backed by the European Social Fund to advance women in IT, pointed out that although the government was supporting projects designed to improve the IT proficiency of the UK workforce and protect against skills gaps, its efforts were mainly around basic IT literacy.

“[Government IT initiatives] are not focusing on the advancement of women in highly skilled IT roles, and firms are not looking at the talent that is available to them,” Pollitzer argued. “Girls do excellently at maths GCSE but nobody recognises and encourages that talent."

The results of a gender best-practice report carried out by the EC in December 2006 demonstrate a clear need to address the women in IT issue.

“According to the report, stereotypes that women have about IT careers include poor working conditions, very male-dominated and no holidays or spare time,” said the EC’s Pascall. “Meanwhile, the ICT sector believes that women are technically incompetent and lack motivation. Furthermore, both sides feel that a career in ICT is not compatible with being a mum.”

To overcome these stereotypes, Pascall urged firms to implement a gender strategy that ensured all staff were treated as equals, and to comply with equal opportunities legislation. “There needs to be transparency over staffing processes to ensure that women are offered the same opportunities as men, as many women feel they’re overlooked. Employers also need to introduce measures to encourage women to stay at firms, such as training, teleworking, job sharing and mentoring programmes,” she advised.

Employers should also implement measures to encourage women to return to the IT industry after a career break, including refresher courses on technology skills.
“It’s difficult to retain women in IT ­ it’s like a leaking pipeline, no matter where we put women in they leak out and we need to close the holes,” Pascall said.

Recent research from Intellect revealed that salary discrepancies could also be a barrier to women joining the IT sector.

The Perceptions of Equal Pay 2007 study, which was based on the views of 368 IT workers, highlighted that more than half of female respondents felt their pay was not comparable with male colleagues performing a similar role. Furthermore, 35 per cent of respondents had evidence of this pay discrepancy.

The need for more transparency over pay structures was clearly indicated by the survey. More than half of respondents said that pay structures in their organisation lacked transparency, while 81 per cent argued that equal pay audits should be obligatory for firms.