The Department of Trade & Industry is donating UKP400,000 over a three year period to WIT, Women into Information Technology. A feasibility study conducted in March last year concluded that unless schoolgirls and women were encouraged to take up information technology careers, the future skills shortage would have a devastating effect on industry and the British economy. WIT was subsequently established in November, and it aims to change the attitudes of recruiters and career advisors by getting teams of employers to work on regional and national projects. British Petroleum, the British Computer Society, EDS, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, STC, The Post Office, and Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte are full members. Each has committed between UKP5,000 and UKP25,000 per year to campaign funds, as well as contributions of UKP500,000 for the coming year. WIT’s new campaign comprises a portfolio of projects that include school projects, workshops, career materials, research into new methods of recruitment, and training and support schemes. The campaign was launched in London by a number of politicians and industry figures, some of whom aren’t normally seen sharing the same platform. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Industry, Eric Forth, optimistically believes that WIT has turned a problem into an opportunity, and he pledged the Department’s continued support for future development. However, he insists that since the business community has a vested interest in getting the problem solved, it should match government donations, which are in a 1:4 ratio against employer contributions. The politicians spoke from right to left, and Eric Forth was followed by the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Baroness Seear. She adopted the theme that information technology is good for women, and women are good for information technology. Women have always done best when there’s been a labour shortage, and the coming demographic changes mean that industry has to find alternative sources of labour. So women might come in handy. One factor in the female favour is that information technology is a relatively new field. Women find it difficult to break into traditional male domains, and they might make more progress where there are no entrenched rights. Baroness Seear also highlighted the retraining and on-going education that is a feature of information technology. This could benefit women since they often leave work to have families, only to re-enter at a lower rank than they previously occupied. She believes that technology industries should adopt retainer schemes, and keep jobs open for a number of years in return for a few weeks’ work and training. The politicians took a back seat while Sir Bryan Nicholson, chairman and chief executive of The Post Office and former chairman of Rank Xerox UK, pledged his support for the WIT campaign. He forecasts that the present 20,000 gap between the demand and supply of information technology professionals will increase to 100,000 by 1995. Sir Bryan advocates a degree of co operation between individual companies. The intense competition for staff has led to spiralling wages and a lack of training. Secondly, he wants to be rid of stereotyped images that hamper interest in technology, and believes that industry has a responsibility to help schools to recognise the importance and potential of information technology.

Carping tongue

Sir Bryan also believes that employers should provide flexible environments that enable women to achieve more balance between home and career. Finally, it is not enough to recruit women, they should occupy positions right up to board level. Training and re-training are vitally important if employers want to hang on to their workforce. He concluded by quoting the seventeenth century poet, Anne Bradstreet. I am obnoxious to each carping tongue, Who sayes my hand a needle better fits. A tidy piece of advice to female technophobes, and a warning to doubting Thomases. Moving on to left again, Hilary Armstrong, an Opposition front bench spokeswoman on education

, spoke of the juggling act that so many women have to perform if they value both home and career. Child care is the overwhelming concern of many working women. If they have no confidence in the quality of child care offered by employers, assuming it even exists, they simply won’t leave their children. Which means they either depart or don’t re-enter the workforce. Ms Armstrong also addressed the problem of schoolgirls being alienated from technology. She thinks many youngsters aren’t encouraged to participate in technology, and she would like to see children use computers from the kindergarten onwards. Every speaker, regardless of political affiliations, came back to one point. The UK is wasting massive resources by not encouraging women into technology, and it makes the industrial and economic life of the nation that much poorer. – Janice McGinn