Griffith Uni, GIDGITS and the IT skills shortage

A national skills shortage is seeing desperate measures. IBM has joined forces with Griffith University, industry and professional association Women in Technology, as well as an IT group started by teenage girls, Girls into Doing Great IT Society (GIDGITS).

With the staff shortage biting IBM has decreed that no future employee is too young to target. The computer giant was a key sponsor of an information technology day for 1,500 girls aged 10 to 15, held at the Nathan campus of Queensland’s Griffith University.

They wanted to talk to young girls about opportunities and particularly encourage them to study science and maths. Some 12 IBM staff members travelled to Griffith University to deliver the message that computers were not only for boys, despite the fact women comprise only 35 per cent of IBM’s workforce.

Only 3 per cent of female year 12 students in Victoria last year showed a strong interest in a technology career, and many thought the industry was ‘boring’, according to a recent survey.