Changing IT! - Female students discuss Careers for the Future at IT event

A special seminar, designed to educate and inform Year 11 and 12 female students about career paths and development opportunities in an evolving IT sector, was held in in Belfast and Derry~Londonderry last week.

 

Attended by over 200 pupils and local teachers from across Northern Ireland, ‘Changing IT: Careers for the Future’ was organised by a collective of leading technology companies spearheaded by Fujitsu, working with BringITOn and Women in Business NI.

 

Students got to meet leading local companies including Fujitsu, Allstate, CME Group, Deloitte, Kainos, Liberty Information Technology, PWC, Seagate, Version 1, Ulster University and the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

 

IT ambassadors and professionals from each organisation participated in breakout sessions and were on hand to speak to teachers about developments and range of career opportunities in the IT sector.

 

Speaking about the events, Principal Consultant at Fujitsu Sinead Dillon said;“Together with BringITOn, Women in Business and our peers across the industry, we were delighted to collaborate to inspire and attract new talent to the industry. 

 

Given the underrepresentation of women in IT, it is important we help young female students understand the scale of opportunity presented by ICT through occasions such as this.

 

“Focusing on the future of work, we shone a light on the transferable and core skills needed to thrive in the industry and key growth areas including artificial intelligence, cyber security and connected technologies. Young people today are increasingly tech-savvy and innovative, and we were thrilled with the focus and enthusiasm from local pupils throughout the day.”

 

The seminars are just one is a series of projects championed by Fujitsu to attract young people into the ICT sector. The company attend career fairs, host schools’ visits and work placements, as well as fostering talent thorough graduate and apprenticeship programmes.