| Thank you Alisa for the warm welcome and introduction to
this afternoon's award presentation. As the Deputy Minister for Women
and Equality, I'd like to thank you for inviting me here today so that
we can continue to support and encourage young women in their IT career
choices.
And can I just add that Patricia also wanted to be here, but
conflicting diary commitments meant that wasn't possible.
I would also like to thank Axios for sponsoring this year's awards
once again and also IBM and Accenture for their co-sponsorship this
year.
We know that women make up 44% of the workforce and projections show
that in 10 years time there will be 2 million more jobs in the economy -
80% of which will be filled by women. We want to do all that we can to
encourage young women, like the award winners here today, into an IT
career.
An IT career for women is exciting, varied and challenging. The IT
sector offers pay and career opportunities for women that other sectors
struggle to compete with. The IT profession is described as one of the
"higher paid" occupations, where although there is still a
gender pay gap, this differential is actually lower than a lot of other
occupations.
By tackling stereotypes we want young women to make informed choices
about their professional lives and careers. The government has been
involved in "The Computer Club for Girls" programme, Schools
workshops, and many other schemes to help encourage young women to think
about a career in IT that they may not previously done.
The 'A' level IT results for girls demonstrate higher levels of
achievement than for boys. Between 2001 and 2002 girls were almost
exactly twice as successful as boys in IT 'A' levels. Employers
understand and appreciate the skills and success that young women bring
to their work places. Their commitment is evidenced today not just the
sponsors in the audience today but also by the widespread development of
recruitment initiatives by employers to attract women to the IT sector.
As young women begin to make choices about their future careers, it
is key that they have female role models at the top of businesses that
they can aspire to. The government is working hard to support and
encourage role models in the IT and science sectors where women are
under represented. For instance Lord Sainsbury launched Science &
Engineering Ambassadors for just that purpose.
I haven't come here this afternoon to make a long speech but rather
celebrate the successes of the award winners and to present them with
their awards. With that in mind I'd like to hand back to Alisa to
commence the presentations.
Thank you.
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