INDUSTRY UNLOCKED

A businesswoman is slamming the UK education system , claiming it ’ s stopping women from making it big in tech . Juliet Moran has worked in tech since the late 90s but says in recent years she ’ s seen the number of women following careers in the sector drop . She believes the gender bias in schools is stopping girls from taking more of an interest in STEM subjects and claims educators need to be doing more to encourage them .

Only 19 % of those taking tech-related bachelor ’ s degrees in Europe are women , and only 23 % of those end up in tech roles .

Moran , Technical Director at TelephoneSystems . Cloud , believes the UK should be doing more to encourage girls to follow STEM subjects at school and into further and higher education .

If they fail , she believes businesses will miss out on an incredible pool of talent who currently see no future for themselves in the tech sector .

Moran said : “ When I went to university over 20 years ago , I was considered a rarity in tech , but at the time the industry was only just starting to take off . However , my course was still 40 % women . I hear stories now from female graduates that they were the only women on their courses .

“ Representation is far worse now and it feels to me like we ’ re going backwards and potentially missing out on a huge pool of talent .

“ I think this boils down to schooling and girls feeling they aren ’ t capable or it isn ’ t a girl subject , otherwise , we ’ d see more women choosing to do degrees in the field .

“ I ’ d love to employ more women , but 99 % of people applying for jobs at my company are male , and there must be a reason .”

Addressing the shortfall , Moran says that schools lack a serious basic understanding of technology , which is holding back female pupils . www . intelligentcxo . com

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