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Thursday 2nd September 2010

Rise of the Cyberella Competition - your chance to win a free IT training course worth £2,950!!



Please note -this competition closed on the 15th February 2010.

Entrants were asked to say in no more than 100 words why they wanted to win an IT training course from the NITLC - entries were then whittled down to a short list of eight. NITLC and womenintechnology.co.uk staff were then shown the short list and asked to vote for their favourite and Centrine Hutton from Glasgow was our lucky winner.

Her entry was: “Ever since I can remember, I’ve always loved computers. So much so that my 5 year old daughter knows how to use the basic side of computers as well. I'm proud of myself for instilling technology in her. I’m a single parent wanting so bad to progress career wise and I just genuinely wish that I was given a chance to prove myself. Winning this course will be a door opening for me in IT. It'll give me a chance to better not only my future but my daughter's. Thanks in advance.” [sic]

Centrine currently works as an IT Administrator and she has been in this position for nearly four years but would love to progress her career in IT. We asked Centrine what her dream IT job is “Being such a technology fan, I love hands on jobs like Network/Systems Engineer”.

Centrine has chosen to study the Cisco CCNA course because, “Cisco teaches the ability to install, operate and troubleshoot different networks. I enjoy solving IT related problems and I get a ‘buzz’ out of it.”

We also asked Centrine how long she had wanted to upgrade her career for, “I’ve been yearning to progress academically for a long time now.  I’ve approached so many companies that help single parents like me but unfortunately, we do have a stigma in this country that states that if you’re working full time, you CAN afford to fund your own studies - this is not the case at all. Some of us work to provide for our families and pay for basic needs, not much is left over at the end of the month to pay towards my career. I’m a single parent and the need to progress career wise will not only help me in my career but also, financially, it’d make it a lot easier for me to provide for my daughter. I have just received my first stage of course materials and can’t wait to get started with my studies”

So, Centrine is well on her way to becoming one of the much sought after Cyberella’s that the IT industry is crying out for!  Maybe her daughter will follow in her glass slippers when she is older and become a Cyberella too!

Anyone who entered this competition should have received an email offering them a discount and how to claim it but if you would like any more information please contact Kate Lilley at the NITLC on 01636 612226.

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Cy-ber-ella - pronounced ‘si-ber-ela’
Definition:  A female with industry recognised IT skills and qualifications and who has recognised the lifelong potential that the IT industry offers

Women no longer sit at home waiting for prince charming to turn up on his trusty white steed and place a glass slipper on their size 5. They are out earning a living then buying the Prada/Gucci/Jimmy Choo (delete as appropriate) glass slipper on-line and have been doing so for a long time now. So why is it then, in a world of equal opportunities, equality and high powered female executives, that the IT industry remains dominated by men?

The answer is a mystery…
Girls achieve higher grades than boys in all subjects at GCSE level. Females consistently achieve higher grades than their male equivalents in IT related subjects. Kate Lilley from the National IT Learning Centre said, “We find that although only 15% of all our students are women they have a far greater first time pass rate and generally obtain higher scores”. You only have to look at the amount of females on social networking sites to see that us girls are more than au fait with the technologically advancing world”. The rewards are high and demand for IT professionals across all industry sectors is great. Information Communication and Technology are major driving factors for the growth of productivity in the EU.
 
Many IT job roles capitalise on women's greatest strengths - communication, collaboration and problem solving. Women also seem to have a natural affinity with what the industry call ‘soft skills’ – these are skills that separate a great employee from a good one. Soft skills are developed personal qualities enabling the employee to work more effectively; time management, presentation skills and team building. A survey commissioned by Microsoft revealed that lateral thinking and collaboration were some of the most sought after traits in prospective employees. Jemma Harris from Microsoft is quoted “Soft skills will reign supreme in the UK workplace over the next 25 years”.

So, how do we make IT that shiny glass slipper that no self-respecting Cyberella is able to resist? It is a must for our technical workforce which invents new tools, games, devices, software and hardware to be used by, amongst others, women. The IT profession needs women in order to be able to offer increased diversity and productivity which is proved to come from having a better balance of women in technical jobs.

And how can we attract women, their knowledge and the qualities they bring? Maybe, if we dispel the nerdy image wrongly associated with IT roles and drag this image out of the 1970s and into the 21st Century!  We must promote the reality that jobs in IT are not all about writing operating systems, working with geeks in brown nylon trousers or learning endless programming languages. Working in IT is about helping companies change the way they work. Making changes to generate more revenue, lower cost and improve customer service - these are solutions for all types of business. IT is everywhere and that isn’t about to change.

So as part of our strategic aim of increasing the number of women working and achieving in the IT profession, we have teamed up with the National IT Learning Centre to run a competition where the prize is a free IT training course worth £2,950!

All you need to do for your chance to win is to explain in no more than 100 words why you would like to win the free IT training course - it's as simple as that!

The competition is open from Monday 18th January until midday on Monday 15th February 2010.




To be in with your chance to win a free IT Training Course worth £2,950 - either CIW Master Designer Course, IT Technician Course or CCNA Course from the The National IT Learning Centre, please click here!