By Mark Graham, 13 March 2001 18:25
NEWS Government research published today mirrors the findings of silicon.com's skills survey 2001, indicating that the IT industry is failing to attract the mature employees and women it needs to bridge the skills gap.
Up to one million more IT professionals are needed to reduce the burden within the IT industry during the next five years, according to the E-skills National Training Organisation. The jobs will not be filled unless the industry looks beyond traditional recruitment sources to attract more women and people over 35.
Anne Cantelo, spokeswoman for E-skills NTO, said: "There is ignorance in IT, particularly when it comes to ageism, employers are openly discriminating against people over 35 and don't seem to think it matters when it does."
She said this correlates to problems with proficiency that have been plaguing the IT industry and delaying projects. Cantelo added that to overcome this, employers need to realise they need more than 'tech heads', they need people skilled in oral communication, customer relationships and team working which can be solved with a more balanced workforce.
Michael Wills, Parliamentary under secretary of state for learning and technology (DfEE), said: "The under-representation of women in the IT industry is unlikely to change in the near future unless we move together quickly to tackle the problems of image."
In silicon.com's third annual skills survey, only 15 per cent of the respondents were female - this corresponded with the NTO's findings. NTO results showed only five per cent of young women consider IT as a career path, perceiving it as 'boring' and 'nerdy'.
The NTO and its image campaign, the Broadening Recruitment Project, will encourage employers to change their recruitment methods, and concludes that the industry is losing out on the business knowledge offered by experienced older employees.
E-skills NTO works in partnership with the government and IT employers in its IT image campaign. The
campaign is also supported by e-minister Patricia Hewitt.
For more information on silicon.com's skill survey click here http://www.silicon.com/skillssurvey2001
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1. Joyce Richardson
With regards to Ageism and sexism, in the I.T industry.
I have worked with computers for just ten year, so I am pretty new to it in comparison to some. I build and repair them in my spare time, and also work on a hardware help line for a Blue Chip computer company. When I took my I.T help line job, for this company, where all the Techies were male, the eldest about 28. All the teams were bonded, (they all started together in the new help line call centre) It was quite scary, because not only was I 56 I am A woman! I went in with computer building, maintenance and repair skills, but no company product training. So I had to sit for just a couple of days with a young lad of 26,who most likely started taking tech training at the same time as me, 10 years earlier - or so I thought. Except on most of the things he seemed to stumble over or did not know the answers to, I would write the answers on a pad for him... he was supposed to be training me!!! Most of the team had been through university, but had no practical experience. Not being the ladylike kind myself, after a week I was accepted as one of the lads. This was probably because I made a point of saying, when I was first put on the team " I bet you were all saying to each other… “I hope they don’t put that old bint on my team" to which they all burst out laughing and it broke the ice. After a couple of weeks the people that were supposed to be showing me the ropes were asking my advice. When someone from another team popped his head over to us one day, and said one of his callers had been keep calling him pet. Looking at me and thinking I was a nice old lady, he said I bet you call people pet do you? MY Team looked shocked for me. I burst out laughing and said no, don’t be stupid, I call them something else, "What do you call them then?" he said. I said I call them T--ts. Just as well we were finished on the phones, as no one would have been able to take a call, as my team were falling about laughing. When in Rome do as the Romans do. Being older is like being a 21 year old in disguise; some younger people only see the disguise and not the person. When some people get older, they try and keep up appearance with the disguise, instead of being them selves. This means they can never fit in, but you cannot pretend you are young because you are not. You have to adapt if someone younger knows more than you, look up to them, just because they are younger doesn’t mean a thing. If they have the experience then they deserve your respect. By the same token they should get the chance to see that some old fogies can be accepted and respected too. It swings both ways. The only advantage the oldie has is, we know if we were their age we would probably act just the same as them! In fact I defy any oldie to not have had a time when they were younger and said. "What do they know they are too old?” I know I did many a time" You cannot be a hypocrite and then expect to be accepted. That’s if you get the chance to get your foot in the door. IT, if you have the interest it, is like a bug, you catch it and then you are hooked, you want more. You want to keep learning more and more, as there is something new everyday. So really no one can ever know it all. Top of the range today is old hat after a week or two. Old or young we are all the same boat; checking the horizon to see what unexpected thing may pop up next.
Cushty@blueyonder.co.uk
2. anonymous
As a 37 year old woman with 2 children returning to work after a maternity break of 1 year, I have been amazed at the openly discriminatory comments. My previous package as a director at a well known FTSE 100 organisation was well in excess of the £100,000 mark and my references are excellent. Comments such as "well now you have 2 children how do you cope?" "my client would prefer a man" "my client perceives there will be too much travel for you with 2 small children" are all actual examples of comments made to me.
I did not expect it to be easy but I am driven, ambitious and good at what I do and I have been astounded by what I have found - especially because every other time I have moved I have been head-hunted!!