Girls in ICT Day - How can we achieve greater diversity in technology?

Last month, we were joined by a fantastic all-female panel of teachers, industry professionals and our very own CEO, Natalie, for a Lunch and Learn webinar to mark International Girls in ICT Day. We were delighted to be joined by female students from Lea Manor and Putteridge High Schools too, who co-hosted the session and put questions to the panel about their own early experiences with technology, and how they think we can encourage more girls and young women to pursue digital careers.

Taking part in this thought-provoking discussion were Vibha Ghei - Vice President - Specialist, Regulatory Oversight Management at BNY Mellon, Fabiana Guglielmi - Head of Creative and Production at Novakid Inc, Kamona Karim - Computer Science Teacher at Putteridge High School, Fatima Maniar - Computer Science Lead at Lea Manor High School and Natalie Moore - CEO at Apps for Good. Thanks so much for helping us highlight the need for greater diversity in digital careers!

Here’s what they had to say…

Fatima: I was interested in computing at school but we didn't actually have computers when I went to school. When I went to university, that's when I got really interested. After I left I actually went back to university again to do a qualification in computer science, and that's really when my passion exploded.

Kamona: I went to school quite a long time ago when there was no computing, but my love was electronics. I did an electronics GCSE which is where I grew my passion. My original pathway was going to be electronics engineering but I remember going into apprenticeship schools and seeing only men and thinking, maybe not. I used to help my husband with web development, because he used to do websites. I used to do that part of it while he did the graphic design, and that grew my passion. When it came to teaching I just thought, maybe this is the pathway to take, and I haven't regretted it since.

Vibha: I had to study computers up until year 11 and 12 because I come from an Indian background. In India, computer science was a compulsory subject and I studied a language called C++ back in the day. I come from a professional family, my dad was a scientist and my mum was a banker. I went into banking but none of us knew at the time that banking would change so drastically. We don't have manual ledgers and the work became completely paperless. Now I continuously uplift myself technologically, train my team and produce data. One of my managers once said to me ‘data is beautiful’. So now I enjoy working on that and advancing my technology skills. Even though back in the day I did not have an interest in computers, it's becoming more and more interesting to me.

Fabiana: I was interested in computers in a very different way, I wasn't as smart as my peers here! I’ve played computer games since I was very, very young, and I used to play with my friends. When I was only six years old, I got something called the ‘Commodore 64’. We used to play games by inserting a cassette, your mind would blow up if you saw it! My interest in computers started by playing and then it was always a passion of mine. I was lucky enough to study design and then get into the digital world. You always have to update your skills and should try to study more, because there's so much to know. Stay curious all the time. Another thing was that I was always very interested in was how things work and I think that's what drives me still. I want to understand what's behind everything we do, and we see.

Natalie: When I was at school we didn't have the current computing curriculum but we did have an ICT curriculum. I actually didn't have the most inspirational teacher so in lessons in school I wasn't that into tech. At home though, social media started to exist - we had things like MySpace and MSN to chat to our friends. So I used to start to play with technology in my spare time and understand how it could help us communicate. Once I left school I didn't go to university, I went straight into a career and realised how important technology already was in the workplace. I always had a bit of an interest in technology but not so much through my education. You guys are lucky that you have the computing curriculum that exists now!

Fatima: I think this is a really good question and I also think it's not so simple. I feel as an educator we have a massive role to ensure that we give everyone the opportunity in the classroom and outside the classroom to use technology as well as meet technologists, so that you have a really good idea of what you're doing in the classroom, and how that's going to benefit you beyond the classroom. Employers also have a massive role to play because they need to showcase how the skills that we're teaching you in school actually helped them. So if you have a passion you can see that it is going to lead you somewhere outside of school.

Natalie: One of the important things I think we need to do is to challenge the stereotypes that we see. Actually just this morning we had a workshop as a team around AI and I've learned that if you use AI to produce a picture of what a software developer looks like, it will show you a young white male, probably wearing glasses. There's a big misconception of what a tech job is nowadays. Every single job interacts with tech and you're going to need those digital skills. I think it's really important that all young people, particularly girls, understand that and see the kind of problems they can solve and the opportunities they might be able to come up with using technology.

You can't be what you can't see, and that's something we say a lot at Apps for Good. We need these wonderful women that are working in tech to have their profile risen, to be on panels like this, to be speaking at events, to be joining classrooms, whether that's through, volunteering with Apps for Good or other initiatives out there. Make sure that these lovely young girls who are in these classrooms today are interacting and seeing what it means to work in tech, that there are women out there doing it, and they can really go on to make a difference. I think it's all of our responsibility to work together and really make that change. I think we're on the right path, but there's definitely more work to do.

Fabiana: I love girls, I love you guys, I think you really are fantastic. I am really lucky because I am the head of a department where almost 70% are girls and I'm lucky enough to mentor them every day. I also volunteer with Apps for Good, and recently gave a workshop at the Business School of Economics in Maastricht about tech and creativity. I always try to meet new young people who are interested in what we do and I'm really in favour of you guys taking what we’ve already done and making it better. You can do anything you want, especially if you collaborate with each other. I think that women should help women because when we support each other we can really do great things together.

Kamona: As a teacher I'm consistently mentoring young girls. In the past three years of my teaching my focus has been to try and encourage more girls into the technology environment. What I've noticed is girls tend to pick the subjects that have more creativity, and Apps for Good has been amazing for that. Last year we didn't get as many, but this year the interest has been amazing after seeing the impact that they can have. They've seen that computing isn't just programming and that computing is diverse. I spend a lot of time talking to students about the future, what it presents in front of us and the fact that it’s not just programming, and the fact that more or less 99% of the jobs out there require technology.

Vibha: I'm quite hopeful that the way education and knowledge is advancing that young girls will feel empowered and encouraged to make a career in technology. I have a 12 year old and a 14 year old who have just done their GCSE options. Of course we were open to what they wanted to choose but we said that computing is non-negotiable, you have to go for it. As Mrs. Karim said, 99% of jobs involve technology. I'm hoping that there will be more gender diversity as we progress through the years ahead.

Fatima: I believe that computer science gives you a lot of skills, not just programming. It gives you an oversight of all the different areas in technology and it also gives you the opportunity to think about a range of careers you could possibly go into. Actually you could amalgamate all of those skills together because nowadays most of them overlap, so you've actually got a range of skills which you can take into industry, or any job and use all of those skills.

Fatima: Do not turn down any opportunities to improve your understanding of new developments, and do not let your friends stop you. Sometimes your friends might not have the same interests but if you have an opportunity, please go for it. You don't know what in the future might actually pop up and you might think, I'm so glad I worked hard on that because actually I need some of what I learned now.

Kamona: Follow your dream and do what you want to do. Don’t be that quiet girl. That was me that walked into an engineering apprenticeship course and saw lots of men and walked out again. That's something that stayed with me, thinking I should have just taken that jump as being the first woman in that group would have been amazing. Don’t let barriers stop you, be the first woman that shows other women that we can take that step forward.

Fabiana: I'd tell my younger self, please do mathematics or engineering, please do it because it's really useful. I was really lucky because I love what I do, I just wish I studied more.

Vibha: The piece of advice I’d give to my younger self would be to do what you want to do. There is nothing that you can't achieve. If you have a clear vision and a plan you can do it. At the same time, there is always a plan B for everything as well. If you fail once, it's just your first step to success. A few years ago, I was a very nervous person but then I was told that I don't need to know the answer to everything. I can go and find out the answer, or perhaps a possible answer, to every question that comes my way.

Natalie: Never set a ceiling on your possibility. If you asked me when I was in secondary school, would I be CEO of a small charity at the age of 34?, I would have probably laughed, but here I am. I think it's really about not seeing anything as impossible and really going for it. Make the most of those extra curricular opportunities, any opportunity to learn, to practice, you just don't know what that experience will add when you're going for interviews, or when you're trying to write your CV and later on in life. Just believe in yourself.