Could apprenticeship encourage more women in tech jobs?

There is a significant gender gap in STEM disciplines around the world, especially in technology.
The advanced technological skills needed for the fourth industrial revolution will be increasingly in demand.
Apprenticeships are proving to be a successful alternative for women wishing to work in technology.

“Although I’m the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last.” When Kamala Harris spoke those words as Vice President-elect of the United States, she continued a very welcome trend that has seen an explosion of phenomenal female role models in all walks of life. Women like Kamala shatter glass ceilings in every industry and inspire young girls to ignore the boundaries that many of us over 40 would have repeatedly reinforced throughout our childhoods.

But, worryingly, STEM – especially tech – continues to lag behind many industries when it comes to female representation. Only 17% of tech jobs in the UK are held by women and 19% in IT science and technology graduates are women. According to the UNin cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence, only one in five professionals worldwide (22%) is a woman.

With an ever-widening digital skills gap and the fourth industrial revolution blurring the lines between our physical and digital worlds, tech skills will only become more in demand. It is essential that we create a pool of diverse and skilled talent capable of filling the growing number of roles that will require these skills.

Bringing more women and girls into STEM

The good news is that there are incredibly bright rays of light out there if you know where to look when it comes to alternative routes to tech education and work. This includes technology and digital training programs and free discovery workshops like QAs Teach the nation to codeas well as options for you to study properly up to master’s level while earning work. That’s what apprenticeships offer, and I think with the right level of visibility and support, they could help accelerate the number of women and girls working in tech.

Since joining QA, I have come across many cases where young girls with a passion for technology might have dropped out of these subjects had they continued through traditional educational pathways rather than opting for an apprenticeship.

Learning Success Stories

Roberta is the IT Compliance Manager for the FinancialTimes who disliked further education, including their chemistry and math subject choices and the university environment. But she knew she wanted to pursue a career in technology. Not wanting to return to college for her sophomore year, her mother suggested considering apprenticeships. From a junior apprenticeship in computer systems and networks, Roberta then obtained a recognized diploma through a diploma apprenticeship. She held three positions at FT since his arrival, demonstrating the potential for employment and academic success that work-based learning can offer. “I haven’t looked back,” says Roberta. “From the start, I felt empowered by responsibility. That was the real difference for me between [college] and an apprenticeship.

The World Economic Forum has been measuring gender gaps since 2006 in the annual Global Gender Gap Report.

The Global Gender Gap Report tracks progress in closing gender gaps at the national level. To turn this information into concrete actions and national progress, we have developed the Closing the Gender Gap Accelerators model for public-private collaboration.

These accelerators were convened in ten countries from three regions. Accelerators are established in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Panama in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank in Latin America and the Caribbean, Egypt and Jordan in the Middle East and North Africa, and Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

All National Accelerators, as well as Knowledge Partner countries demonstrating global leadership in closing gender gaps, are part of a larger ecosystem, the Global Learning Network, which facilitates the exchange of ideas and knowledge. experiences via the Forum platform.

In 2019, Egypt became the first country in the Middle East and Africa to launch a Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator. While more women than men are now enrolled in university, women make up just over a third of professional and technical workers in Egypt. Women in the labor force are also less likely to be paid the same as their male colleagues for equivalent work or to move into leadership positions.

In these countries, CEOs and ministers work together over a three-year period on policies that help to further reduce the economic gender gaps in their countries. This includes extended parental leave, subsidized child care and removing unconscious bias in recruitment, retention and promotion practices.

If you are a business in one of the Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator countries, you can join the local member base.

If you are a business or government in a country where we do not currently have a Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator, you can contact us to explore the possibilities of creating one.

Rosie is another fantastic example of the power of learning for young women. She says she studied computer science in school because “one guy said because I’m a girl I wouldn’t be able to do it”. Determined to prove him wrong, she took the course and fell in love with programming. She was approached by Cisco at her school’s job fair to apply for an apprenticeship. She became the youngest Cisco employee in the world and graduated debt-free at age 19. Rosie says one of the biggest benefits of an apprenticeship is that she’s “always learning and building a network of people around me.”

Achieve gender equality

I sincerely believe that the arguments for learning growth are powerful and solid. There are thousands of At Roberta and Rosie’s out there who need to be encouraged to pursue their interest in technology. While traditional education may be fine for some, it clearly does not yet solve the gender problem in STEM, so we need to make women and girls more aware of alternative options before they lose their passion.

Apprenticeships are increasingly popular, employers are changing their hiring strategies to target school leavers, and with degree-based apprenticeships, there’s no need to sacrifice your academic goals. So I call on people in positions to make a difference – teachers, parents, CTOs, CEOs and anyone else involved in nurturing, inspiring and hiring talent – to support learning. They are a powerful force for good, especially when it comes to achieving gender equality.