Tech qualifications, an advantage in competitive job market, says e-Business Life Publisher

Success Damian:

Publisher, e-Business Life Magazine, Mrs. Ufuoma Emuophedaro has stated that Tech qualifications will give an added advantage in a competitive job market, guarantee a high salary and give career mobility.

She stated this in an address she presented at the Eighth Edition of Girls in ICT Day which was held at Lagos Oriental Hotel, Lekki on Thursday, May 16.

She disclosed that the future of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector promises to be an exciting one, stating that it is estimated that within the next 10 years, there will be more than 2 million technology jobs that cannot be filled because of lack of qualified ICT specialists.

Emuophedaro said that Technology has also become a critical tool in fields as diverse as art, history, archaeology, law, primary teaching, to mention but a few.

Quoting a report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), that the ICT sector remains a buoyant and growing sector for employment, and a key economic factor reinforcing both national and international development, the Publisher said studies has shown that despite these promising predictions, globally, not enough young people are choosing careers in ICTs – especially not enough young ladies.

While adding that the trend is a global occurrence, she said however that the situation is more pronounced in developing countries like Nigeria.

She said that female students currently account for fewer than 20% of tertiary ICT enrollments, down from nearly 40% back in the 1980s, when computer science courses first appeared on universities curricula. She added that around 3% of total female graduates study ICT fields, compared with around 10% of male graduates.

This academic gender gap is reflected in the number of female ICT professionals, now estimated at just 20% across the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In Europe, only 9% of app developers are female, only 19% of European ICT managers are women (compared with 45% women managers in other service sectors), and only 19% of ICT entrepreneurs are women (compared with 54% women in other service sectors), according to figures released by the European Commission. Back home here in Nigeria, when you study admissions into our universities, only a hand full of female students enroll for courses in engineering and computer science. Hence the Girls in ICT Day.

​​International Girls in ICT Day, an initiative of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), is aimed at creating a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider car​eers in the growing field of ICTs, enabling both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector. International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of April and was observed on 25 April 2019.

She stated that the day is established in a bid to counter the chronic global decline in the number of female ICT students, which is in turn contributing to a predicted global shortfall of at least two million ICT jobs which will not be able to be filled through lack of qualified staff.

Emuophedaro said technical enterprises, enterprises with technical departments and trainings, universities and research centers all over the World open their doors to primary and secondary school students. However, countries are free to celebrate on days convenient for them.

In her word “With strong backing from the tech sector and national governments, ‘Girls in ICT Day’ has rapidly grown into a global movement, to date, over 357,000 girls and young women have already taken part in more than 11,100 celebrations of International Girls in ICT Day in 171 countries worldwide.​

“No career should be termed as a “man’s job or a woman’s job. Females all over the world should challenge themselves to do the unimaginable, achieve the unthinkable and bridge this gap; for it is what the heart conceives that the mind and body will deliver. Remember when women and girls are empowered with technology, the whole world benefits,” the Publisher said