GENDER BALANCE TO BEAT SKILLS CRUNCH

In the ensuing Q&A session, Conroy was asked about the skills crisis confronting the sector; one answer, he said, would be to bring a larger female work-force into the industry.

―This has been something that has held back… the sector. You go to any room of… engineers, and it‘s about 95% men. We‘re missing out on half the population coming into this sector,‖ he said. ―I know there‘s a number of programs that the Australian Computer Society run to try and encourage women… into this sector. There‘s a bit of a challenge – maybe it‘s those Dungeons and Dragons evenings that women didn‘t find that exciting! – but I think we have a real challenge across the entire sector to open that up, find out what those barriers have been that have kept women out of the profession.‖

―We need to collaborate with the sector, to get into schools — once [students] have gone to university, you‘ve almost lost the debate — so that women know that this is a fabulous sector, it‘s a worldwide sector, it has enormous opportunity in every way possible, and particularly with the connectivity that we‘re talk-ing about delivering, this is going to be cutting edge,‖ he continued. ―I think a lot of people lost faith [after] the tech bubble… but our fundamental problem is we‘re not getting half the population interested in this sector. It‘s just got to change, from the top down. I‘m very excited by the programs that are being run, but we can all collectively do more on that.‖

written by Petroc Wilton - Communications Today