Logging on to a great career: York girls urged to be part of the IT crowd

To be fair to Richard Hind, York College’s higher education IT tutor, he does a pretty good job.

The first-ever computer programme was written by a woman, he says – Lord Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace. She became interested in Charles Babbage’s early mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine – and in the 1840s wrote out a series of extensive notes on it which are now generally recognised as a description of computer software.

She was, if you like the mother of computer programming. And why shouldn’t it have been a woman? There’s nothing that says women can’t be good at IT, Richard says. In fact there’s loads about computer science that should appeal to women.

“It’s fun, it’s creative, it’s enjoyable – and there are some fabulous careers out there,” he says.

Studying IT does far more than equip you for being the office IT geek hidden away in a dark basement until your expertise is needed.

Understand how computers work, and you can use them to do almost anything, Richard says. Just think about the modern world we live in. Computing and IT underlies so much of it – everything from the smartphones teenagers keep in touch with their mates on to search engines such as Google which bring a world of knowledge to our fingertips, to the computer graphics which make modern blockbusters so jaw-dropping.

And then there’s the whole world of computer gaming. Anyone who’s ever played Call of Duty or Broken Sword – or even Angry Birds on their mobile or laptop – will know just how wildly, outrageously inventive, imaginative and creative the people who designed them must have been.

Wildly imaginative: Broken Sword

For anyone with a decent training in the computer sciences, it’s only going to get better. Charles Cecil, boss of York-based Revolution Software which made Broken Sword, says the technology is developing so rapidly that the future possibilities are dizzying.

Computers today are hundreds of thousands if not millions of times more powerful than when he wrote his first computer game programme for Sinclair in 1981. And the limits of what we can do are expanding accordingly, he says.

Yes, you need creativity. But if you can marry that with an understanding of how computers work ... “Then you can change the world!” he says.

Yet despite all of this, the number of girls studying IT at York College is dishearteningly low.

Overall, fewer than 10 per cent of the college’s IT students are girls. It’s not uncommon for classes to have just a single girl amid a sea of boys.

This gender imbalance is replicated across much of the industry that computer sciences graduates might end up working in.

York College’s public relations officer Jill Sissons produces some statistics which are truly shocking.

Twitter’s target for 2016 is for 16 per cent of its tech staff to be women. Google is scarcely better, she says – just 19 per cent of its tech staff are women. At Microsoft, that figure is 17 per cent, while Apple says that 32 per cent of its overall workforce is female.

This is a big, big problem, says Charles Cecil. The creative digital industries desperately need more women.

You can be part of a revolution that will change the world, says Charles Cecil

For a start, if no women are coming through, that means the pool of potential recruits is only half the size it could be. “And that means we’re lowering the quality.”

More important, perhaps, creative industries thrive on diversity. “And I do believe that girls do bring something different.”

So why, with so many brilliant, creative opportunities out there, aren’t more girls interested?

That’s the million dollar question, Richard Hind admits.

Partly it’s the dry way computer science is taught at so many schools, he says. And partly, perhaps, it’s undeniable fact that IT does have a geeky reputation.

That reputation doesn’t help, Charles Cecil admits. But he points to another factor – the decision by the Labour government to remove computer science from the national curriculum.

“The number of young women (studying computer sciences) plummeted,” he says. The subject is, at least, now back on the curriculum, so he hopes the number of girls coming through will start to pick up. He certainly hopes so. “We need more women. We want diversity.”

In the meantime, girls really are missing out by letting computer science’s geeky, nerdy reputation put them off, says Richard Hind. He has a message for them.

“Don’t let the boys have all the fun!” he says. “Come and be part of the future.”

There are some girls, of course, who have done just that. And they can’t, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as nerds.

Sam Eastwood, left, York College's head of maths Miggy Biller and Phoebe Frere, right

OK, so on the day she comes to talk to The Press, Phoebe Frere is wearing a superman T-shirt. But the 17-year-old, who’s in the second year of an A-level in IT at the college, also has a wicked sense of humour.

She’s the only girl in her class, she admits – there are something like 20 boys.

“But it’s not too bad.” she says. “Everybody is so dweebie it’s not threatening at all!” She corrects herself with a quick grin. “Everybody is so nice, I mean!”

Sam (and that’s short for Samantha, before you start asking) Eastwood also seems to have survived unscathed the challenge of being the only girl in class.

She has just started a four-year M.Eng degree at York University after getting four A* grades at A-level – making her York College’s top-achieving A-level student this year.

It would have been nice to have a few other girls in class, she admits.

But the world is now her oyster. She loves problem-solving – which is going to put her right up there when she starts job hunting. And what kind of job will she be looking for? She hasn’t decided yet, she protests. “I’ve got four years of learning to do yet! There’s so much I don’t know!” But she’ll have plenty of opportunities.

Kristina Kvasnicova, a 34-year-old now in the second year of a foundation degree in computer systems, design and solutions at York College, has some simple words of advice for any girls put off the subject by its geeky reputation.

Kristina Kvasnicova

“Forget all that!” she says. “Just go for it!”

Phoebe, however, has the last word. Computer science is much better than biology, she says. “In biology you just have to learn loads of facts. With computers, you don’t have to learn stuff by heart. You can discover things for yourself!”

You certainly can. And it’s just about the best possible reason for studying them...

• York College has an open day on November 9 from 6-8.30pm for those who want to find out more about courses in IT and commuter science - or anything else. Alternatively, visit yorkcollege.ac.uk

COME AND JOIN US, SAY BOSSES

York is a UNESCO city of digital media arts – and it has a number of successful digital businesses.

Do they agree that we need more women coming into the sector?

Definitely, says Gary Brown, director of the brand identity business LazenbyBrown.

Gary Brown

“It would be great to see more women bringing their flair, creativity and digital skills into the design and digital sector,” he says. “The digital industries sector is in massive growth, with a diverse range of opportunities and roles available to suit graduates of either gender.

“It’s a very exciting sector to work in, and a balanced male/female team would potentially offer a much richer base of perspectives to create ideas from.”

Owen Turner of York-based design agency United By Design says there’s a reasonable mix of men and women in his firm: about 40 per cent of staff are women. But he accepts that across the industry as a whole, women are in the minority.

Owen Turner of United By Design

A proper balance is needed, he agrees. And for anyone coming into the industry – whether via computer science, or via the design route – there are amazing opportunities. “There are all sorts of things that are starting to evolve now – there are jobs around that didn’t exist five or ten years ago. We have to adapt to that – and I think it is the younger people coming through that are going to help us do that!”

THE LURE OF MATHS AND ENGINEERING

Computer science isn’t the only subject in which men outnumber women, of course.

Maths is another – although the imbalance there isn’t so great. At York College, 63 per cent of students studying maths are male, while 37 per cent are female.

Maths has a reputation for being difficult. But it needn’t be, says the college’s head of maths, Miggy Biller, who has been teaching the subject for 30 years or so, and was recently awarded the MBE for services to Further Education.

Miggy Biller

She wants her students to enjoy Maths. So her classes involve a lot of group work, with students working together to solve problems. “It’s much more fun.”

The great thing about maths, however, is that it underlies so much of our modern world. And it opens up a huge range of careers – everything from accounting to statistical work to science, computer science and engineering.

Ah, yes, engineering. There’s another subject that has traditionally been dominated by men.

The perception is that it’s all about wearing overalls and doing grubby, practical things, says Lisa Wheeler, York College’s head of division for engineering. It’s a very broad field, taking in everything from equipment manufacture and maintenance to electronics, structural engineering and computer-aided design.

Lisa Wheeler

She herself once worked for British Aerospace – in a clean, smart office – ensuring that aircraft frames were properly designed so as to be safe.

Engineering is an absolutely brilliant career, she says. “You feel like you’ve achieve something at the end of every day!”