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Program Encourages Girls to Go High-Tech

DeVry Institute of Technology will host a educational program for high school teachers titled, “Women in Technology” on January 15. The program’s goal is to increase the number of women in high-technology fields by instructing teachers on how they can encourage girls to pursue information technology as a career.

Speakers from Hewlett-Packard, Chase Manhattan Bank, Creative Computer Center, Computer Generated Solutions and Cybergrrl, Inc. will address topics including the need for female role models in the field of information technology, some specific skills that employers will seek in the future, and methods of encouraging girls to take the high-level math, science, and computer courses necessary for success in the world of information technology.

A study released by the Information Technology Association of America found that there are more than 346,000 unfilled jobs in the field of information technology. Numbers calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that, in the next 7 years, more than a million new computer-related jobs will be created. Ellen Derwin, DeVry’s national outreach manager, commented, “These new jobs, in fields diverse fields such as music, sports and agriculture will require technical competency, and we have to prepare all of our students, regardless of gender, for a future based on computers.”

Currently, women make up only about 5 percent of computer programmers and about 10% of systems analysts.

Sources:

Business Wire - January 12, 1999

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