ICT

GO GIRLS, GO FOR IT

On Thursday, 16 August, Mrs Munro, Ms Hatch and 23 keen and enthusiastic girls headed off to Deakin University to take part in the Go Girls, Go for IT biannual event. This event is organised by the Victorian ICT for Women network who are passionate about making girls aware of the wonderful career opportunities that are available to girls in the IT world. Whilst careers in ICT have increased by 70% since 1996, only 16% of these roles are taken up by women.

The keynote speaker was Ally Watson, Co-Founder and CEO of Code Like a Girl. The Sydney Morning Herald named Ally Watson as one of Australia’s nine most influential female entrepreneurs of 2017 which is an amazing achievement for a girl from Scotland who only moved to Australia a few years ago. Her story was inspiring to listen to. Desperate to pursue a career in Art and Design, she applied to and was rejected by all the major Art and Design universities two years in a row and, almost by mistake, ended up studying Software Engineering. She is a wonderful example of how females can be enormously successful in a male dominated field and I hope she inspired some of our girls to pursue their dreams and believe anything is possible.

The second session had speakers from ANZ, Telstra and The Dream Collective. Whilst all three speakers engaged with the students, Sarah Lui of The Dream Collective was particularly inspiring. Fired twice from her job, largely for not being happy to conform to what was expected of her, Sarah has gone on to set up an organisation that works with leading corporations in Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore aimed at helping women climb the corporate ladder.

The conclusion to the day involved visiting the Tech Trade Hall where exhibitors from a variety of universities and large organisations were on hand to give guidance and information to the girls on how to pursue a future in technology. Of course, what made this part of the day a real success was all the freebies on offer and an abundant supply of lollies, chocolate and Fairy Floss.

For Ms Hatch and me, it was an absolute pleasure to take such a wonderful group of girls to this great event. I hope it will inspire some of them to challenge themselves in the careers that they pursue and that some of the careers will be in the world of technology.

Shirley Munro

ICT Teacher