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The European Commission invites organisations to attract more girls and women into digital

Through the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition the European Commission invites companies and organisations to organise activities to equip more women and girls with digital skills and enthuse them to pursue ICT studies and careers.

Graphic showing a young woman working on a laptop at a desk and text "Girls in ICT Day"

European Commission

Poster of the Girls in ICT Day

Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for the Digital Single Market said

"Technology desperately lacks gender balance on all domains – STEM education, digital jobs, decision making and tech business. Today less than one in five ICT graduates is a woman and the share is not progressing. Moreover, only 16% of the almost 8 million people working in ICT are women. Activities to improve the situation in ICT education and work could help women to succeed in a variety of domains."

Employment in the ICT sector has been growing in the last ten years. However, only around 16% of the almost 8 million people working in ICT are women, and their share of workforce is declining. Attracting more women to technology would ensure a boost to the economy and would contribute to further economic empowerment of women, as ICT is a sector where almost no pay gap between men and women with equivalent levels of qualification and responsibility.

Thematic call for women in ICT pledges

In order to bring attention to these issues and foster new solutions, the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition is opening a thematic call for pledges on Women in ICT, which will run in parallel to the general pledging for action in the four general categories of the Coalition:

  • Digital skills for all – developing digital skills to enable all citizens to be active in our digital society
  • Digital skills for the labour force – developing digital skills for the digital economy, e.g. upskilling and reskilling workers, jobseekers; actions on career advice and guidance
  • More and better trained ICT professionals in Europe – developing high level digital skills for ICT professionals in all industry sectors
  • Digital skills in education – transforming teaching and learning of digital skills in a lifelong learning perspective, including the training of teachers

Organisations wishing to pledge could focus on organising the following activities:

  • providing digital skills training with a special focus on women and girls
  • raising awareness about the opportunities available for women in ICT
  • giving visibility to female role models that would inspire girls
  • upskilling, re-skilling women, etc. 

How do I make a pledge?

Your organisation should become a member of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and make a pledge for action by end September 2017. Pledges could be by individual organisations or companies or collectives. Selected pledges with this thematic focus will be invited to present their initiatives at a Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition event in December 2017. The Secretariat of the Coalition will also support pledgers in facilitating further collaborations or scaling up actions.