Girls' computer club gives tech a facelift

How Girls Aloud can help solve the IT skills crisis

Denise Grady began running her lunchtime girls computer club at Holy Spirit Primary School in Runcorn back in January and she's proud of the success she's had already.

She said: "I really do believe it has gone a long way towards changing the girls' attitudes because I don't believe that they appreciated how many of the things that they love doing involve IT skills."

Only a fifth of the IT workforce is female and many of the people that do want to go into IT lack the life and business skills that employers want. The Computer Clubs for Girls (CC4G) programme - of which Grady's club is a part - is hoping to turn that around.

Grady's club has more than a dozen 10- and 11-year-old girls signed up as members. Using subjects that are close to the girls' hearts (fashion and celebrity) she is teaching them about IT. For example, the girls arranged a visit from Girls Aloud star Nicola Roberts - a former pupil - and are designing their own newsletter as a result.

Grady, who is also a cross business services manager at IBM, said: "They have been just fantastic, to see them so motivated in just a few short months. It's unbelievable how much their attitude towards IT has changed.

"They didn't see that all coming together as a career in IT and that's what CC4G does - it opens their eyes. You can see how it changes their attitude."

For the last four years the CC4G programme has been trying to lay the foundations that might - in a few years' time - help turn around the gender imbalance in the IT industry.

CC4G programme manager Melody Hermon said: "There's a lot of work that has gone in around A-levels and degrees in trying to encourage women into IT but we realised that we have to start a lot younger than that."

The clubs are run voluntarily by schools outside school hours - at lunchtime or after school - and offer up to 120 hours of curriculum-linked activities. They're aimed at girls aged between 10 and 14, traditionally the age group where girls become "switched off" to technology and IT-related careers, according to e-skills UK.

Because while girls are quite happy to play on games consoles, surf the web or gossip with friends by mobile or text message while listening to their iPods, they don't make the link between the appeal of these technologies and the idea of a job in IT.

Hermon said: "They are using technology but not making a connection with a future career choice. At the time they start to think about their careers they are not thinking about the technology that they have."

Many of the activities are based around topics that are likely to attract girls - celebrity, music, dance and fashion. But the clubs are aiming to teach girls about planning, organising and team skills as well as the latest trends.

Hermon explained: "These are used as the window dressing. When we are teaching databases we are teaching it using fashion."

She said the idea is to develop enthusiasm for technology, overcoming the "fear factor".

Over a term the girls will work on a project, which could range from designing nail art on a PC to developing web pages for parents to order school uniforms.

She said: "It might be quite a creative session but the focus will be on using technology." Other activities might include visits from female role models, trying to show the girls that IT is full of normal people and not just "beards and sandals".

The people running the clubs aren't necessarily the IT teachers, either. She added: "They are not all ICT managers. Some of them just have an enthusiasm for technology. We've got maths teachers, art teachers and music teachers."

Currently 1,500 schools are registered and 1,300 are running classes. The aim is to get CC4G into most secondary schools in the next couple of years.

The initiative - created by e-skills UK and funded by the Department for Education and Skills - has been running for four years so it is still way too early to see what the long-term impact will be on the number of women entering the IT jobs market.

But some of the early signs are promising - 66 per cent of CC4G members questioned said they are now more likely to enter careers in IT.