Move out of the Shadow! Seize the OpportunITy!
The European Commission Shadowing Conference
6 March 2008, Brussels
Attracting young women to take up a career in ICT is essential to combat the shortage of staff in this crucial sector. That's why Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, is following up last year's shadowing exercise with a one day conference to discuss how to best motivate young women to start a career in ICTs. The conference will take place on 6 March in the European Commission's Charlemagne Building in Brussels.
"Committed and skilled women are needed at the cutting edge of technological progress", Commissioner Viviane Reding
Despite its importance, a shortage of ICT qualified staff is predicted. By 2010 Europe will be short of around 300,000 engineers. The problem though is not limited in Europe but is international. Το face this globally acknowledged challenge we need to attract young people, in particular young women to enter and stay in the ICT workforce. Women are a potential for the ICT sector which we have so far too little tapped into. We should be encouraging women "returners" to get into ICTs and finally adopting mechanisms to retain women already in the sector. It is now more important than ever to try and tap into the potential of more than 50% of the population that has not been used so far as a resource: women!
The conference includes (agenda):
- A key note speech by Commissioner Reding. She will also present the video of the 2007 Shadowing Initiative.
- A look at the current situation including statistics.
- Three afternoon workshops on:
- Best practices: Women in ICT careers
- Education: The barriers and how to overcome them
- Spread the message at national, European and international level
These workshops will take the form of break-out sessions. They aim to propose possible solutions. Following these workshops the rapporteurs will come together to report on the findings.
The conference targets all main actors in the area of ICT as well as academia. Any plan of action stemming from the conference will need to be endorsed by all involved in order to be implemented. Participating is easy, you just have to register online. Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at the following address: INFSO-IT-GIRLS
ec [ punto ] europa [ punto ] eu (INFSO-IT-GIRLS[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
This issue concerns everybody as a large part of European competitivity, innovation and economic growth is related to the Information and Telecommunication Technologies Sector.
So go ahead! Seize the IT opportunity and move out of the shadow!