IT shortage provides opportunity for women

Partnership aims to support women in male-dominated industry

Over the next three to four years, the information technology field will need 89,000 new people, according to Canada’s Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC). This increased demand comes at a time when post-secondary enrolment in information technology and computer science has dropped 50 per cent in the past five years. With only about 8,000 students expected to graduate each year from post-secondary institutions in these fields, an extreme labour shortage is in the sector’s near future.

“The demand is far outstripping the supply,” said Paul Swinwood, president of ICTC, the sector council formerly known as the Software Human Resource Council.

Women represent an underutilized population in the IT field, making up only 25.3 per cent of workers. However, since the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, there’s been a major shift in the type of IT jobs and women represent the best source of talent for these jobs, said Swinwood.

“While in 2000 the demand was very, very high for computer programmers and people who were able to work at the coding level, what we’ve seen now is the demand for information and business system analysts has outstripped the demand for programmers,” he said. “There’s about 100,000 more people in the operational side of making IT work for companies — the business analyst side of it, the systems analyst side of it.”

These new jobs require people to have more relationship skills, as well as knowledge of the business and communication skills.

In 2004-2005, women represented 27 per cent of university enrolments in mathematics, computer and information sciences, according to Statistics Canada. The low representation is mostly due to a bias in the education system that fails to encourage women to explore science and math disciplines, said Lynda Leonard, senior vice-president of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC).

However, universities have recognized the change in the sector and are beginning to offer more well-rounded IT programs. Halifax’s Dalhousie University launched three new bachelor programs: informatics in commerce, informatics in health and informatics in environment. In the first class, which started this September, 40 per cent of the students were female.

“It is becoming a service-oriented sector where the service is to your fellow employees and your customers. There are a tremendous number of jobs where, in my view, women in technology do a much better job.” said Swinwood. “I think there’s a tremendous opportunity and these bachelor of informatics programs are a prime way of attracting more women into the sector.”

For women already working in the industry, IT can be a lonely place, said Leonard.

“When you get to the workforce, you realize you’re in a workforce that’s designed by men and is substantially for men. You fight isolation all through your career. It can be very, very frustrating,” she said. “There are some extraordinary companies that have been persistent at understanding that this is a challenge that should be overcome. But the job’s not done yet.”

One such company is Xerox Canada. Martine Normand, vice-president of HR at Xerox, said the company has looked at various ways to attract and retain women, including a women’s networking alliance, maternity leave programs that encourage employees to stay in touch with the company while on leave, succession planning that looks specifically at ensuring women are part of the leadership pipeline and mentoring programs.

As a way to provide support to women in the information and communication technology industry, ITAC has partnered with Canadian Women in Communications (CWC), a Toronto-based national organization that promotes the advancement of women in communications.

CWC already has a full offering of programs for women who work in sectors where women are under-represented or where they face significant challenges, said Leonard. These programs include a formal, contracted mentorship program, career coaching and a career accelerator program.

The accelerator program is done in partnership with an educational institution, and is a forum that brings together 20 women for eight days where they learn, network and build their confidence to take the next step up the corporate ladder. Leonard would like to see the IT career accelerator program focus on the issue of strategic change management, with input from academics and leaders in the industry.

The ITAC and CWC partnership is a good opportunity for women throughout the IT industry, said Normand.

“ITAC never focused before specifically on women in technology,” she said, adding that she has been impressed by the various programs offered by CWC. “They really picked up on the different needs that women can have at different levels.”

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