Substantial opportunities for women seeking tech jobs
April 20, 2017
Computer programming jobs have previously struggled to attract women, but new technologies are providing substantial
opportunities for a growing number of young girls seeking tech jobs, NZTech government relations director Andrea Hancox
says.
Research has shown that tech firms with a balance of men and women make more money and, because there are less women
than men in the sector, many firms are actively developing their businesses and roles to make them more attractive for
women, she says.
To get more females into tech jobs, NZTech is helping organise Shadow Tech Days all over New Zealand from May 31 through
to June 22 to help companies give schoolgirls a peek at the life they could create if they take on a career in tech.
The Shadow Tech Days will take place in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Palmerston North, Wellington,
Christchurch and Dunedin.
Produced with the support of the Ministry of Youth Development, Shadow Tech Day is a collaboration between NZTech and
the Manukau Institute of Technology bringing together tech firms and other tertiary institutes throughout New Zealand,
to connect hundreds of schoolgirls with the possibilities of tech.
The tech sector is growing faster than any other part of the New Zealand economy and it is creating lots of new and
interesting jobs, Hancox says.
Only three percent of 15-year-old New Zealand schoolgirls consider a career in IT. Women make up only 23 percent of
those employed in IT occupations but the tech sector has the highest paid and highest qualified employees of any
industry.
With more than 28,000 companies employing around 100,000 people the tech sector has a growing number of opportunities
from traditional software development roles to creatives, designers, business analysts, managers and engineers.
“Tech roles are not just limited to the tech sector. With more and more industries deploying technologies Shadow Tech
Day is helping to expose future career opportunities for young girls in technology within airlines, banks, schools and
almost all sectors.
“The tech sector is growing at a pace that means new talent is in demand. This has resulted in the tech sector having
some of the highest salaries around without the same costs of education as jobs such as law and medicine.
“The sector growth also means job prospects are high with exciting new companies and tech roles emerging every year.
Jobs like drone engineers or artificial intelligence designers didn’t exist a couple of years ago, so we expect to see
new job opportunities continuing to emerge that we can’t even envisage,” Hancox says.