I thought it was worth publicising the European Commission‘s Shadowing Conference on 6 March 2008 in Brussels, though girl geeks may already know about it.
The Commission’s “IT Girls” initiative aims to get more girls into information technology / ICT careers. (I notice their webpage includes a link to the excellent Women In Technology group run by Maggie Berry.)
The Commission organised “shadowing days” where girls shadowed women working in IT in various technology companies. There’s even a WMV video available – I think they should have put the film on YouTube if they’d wanted to publicise it better, but there we go.
The presentations from the shadowing conference are now available – mostly slides, but a couple of full papers (single PDF with all slides & papers) – with not only talks on diversity but also workshops on best practices on women in ICT careers, education and overcoming the barriers, and increasing awareness of the issues.
Personally, given the shortage of people with IT skills in the European workforce, I think the powers that be should concentrate as much if not more on also encouraging returners to work, plus people looking for second or third careers whether female or male – but that’s a subject for a separate post!
About Imp
Imp is one of our Girl Geek Dinners regulars and has a passion for mobile devices. When you see her just ask her how many phones she has with her this time!
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