1000 Women Turn Their Passion for Codes and Algorithms into Jobs
Whether motivated by curiosity, interest in sciences or by pure chance, over 1,000 women turn their passion for IT into jobs.Date:
They do their homework and are taking time to study what they are passionate about: the basics of programming languages, which will help them develop the interface of a website or a web application. These skills are stipulated in the job description of a front-end developer - a demanded profession, but which is facing a shortage of employees.
Besides the plenty of career benefits in this sector, women are also motivated by their passion for codes, algorithms, and programming languages. The outcome of the practical exercises gives them the necessary motivation and certainty that they will manage to make a career in a continuously expanding field.
The girls and women are students in the ‘Empowering Women with ICT Skills’ program, implemented by the National Association of ICT Companies, with the support of UN Women Moldova and financial support of the Swedish Government.
Svetlana Cazariz, one of the Program participants, says that as a child she wanted to become an emergency medicine doctor and a programmer. The woman managed to fulfill her dreams, and now she divides her day between saving human lives and writing codes.
‘I studied the Medicine University and a year ago I also graduated from IT courses at a specialised institution. Medicine and IT are my inner call and have many similarities: both are difficult, extremely interesting, require a complex approach and give the opportunity to assert yourself’, says Svetlana.
For more than four months already, the participant has managed to do her homework; the flexibility of her educational program allows her to persevere in the digital field, as well.
‘As long as I have enough free time, the platform allows me not to lose the knowledge I have already accumulated and to develop it further. The courses are well structured — one may learn and do the homework both at home and online on the phone, which is very effective.’
Inga Ivanov, another participant, says she loves the logics and detail-orientation specific to IT. She is a graduate from Foreign Languages Department, and now works as an accountant. She wants to change her profession in one year and invests lots of efforts to make sure that she gets a new job in an IT company.
‘I found these courses by chance, after watching an online presentation. I told to a friend, who was already employed in an IT company, to take these courses. A few days later I decided to enroll as well, being curious and eager to learn something new. Now, after 4 months of study, I have serious thoughts to change my profession. It is an active, continuously expanding area’.
The training program includes online and offline sessions, and runs from October 2018 to May 2019. During this period, participants need to study online at least 15 minutes a day in order to accumulate 8,000 points for the four specialised courses: HTML, CSS, Javascript, VueJS+ES 6. Two months of this program will be dedicated to practical workshops at Tekwill. To encourage women's access to the most dynamic industry, the program courses are offered for free, both in Romanian and Russian.
’ATIC aims at encouraging Moldovan girls and women to joint IT courses so that they can work in the most dynamic industry and benefit from equal opportunities for professional development and assertion. Together with UN Women, the Swedish Government and the United States Agency for International Development, we designed and are implementing programs to encourage girls to choose such careers, offering them the necessary training and support’, says Ana Chiriţa, National Association of ICT Companies.
‘It is very encouraging and gratifying that more and more girls and women are willing to pursue a career in IT. This sector, which has a huge employment potential, is a good opportunity to reduce both the gender gap on the labour market and the gender pay gap. In 2017, the gender pay gap in the IT sector reached about 33%. Currently, women account for 61% of tertiary education graduates, but only 4% of them graduate from STEM specialties (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). That is why, given the growing demand for skilled labour in the ICT field, women are an enormous potential for this sector,’ said Lucretia Ciurea, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at UN Women Moldova.
‘Empowering Women with ICT Skills’ Project was launched in June 2018 with the financial support of the Swedish Government and UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women).
Story Source: ATIC Moldova