School girls learn about opportunities in the ICT field |28 May 2016

Some of the presenters

 Young girls and women working in and studying ICT shared their journey with the school girls to inspire them to take a career in the field mostly considered as male-dominated. 

This event was held yesterday at the Anse Royale campus of the University of Seychelles (UniSey) to commemorate the International Girls in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Day.

An initiative of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), this day is celebrated every fourth Thursday of April each year and its aim is to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of ICT.

It was organised by Sids Youths Aims Hub Seychelles (SYAH-SEY) in collaboration with the UniSey, the Department of Information Communications Technology (DICT) and the Seychelles National Youth Council (SNYC).

Girls present were from secondary, post-secondary and university, of both the public and private academic institutions. 

The school girls got first-hand experience with ICT during the afternoon session whereby the girls took part in ICT sessions prepared by lecturers from the ICT department of UniSey which showed them the benefits and career progressions available within the field of ICT.

The opening remark was done by the principal secretary for ICT Benjamin Choppy.

Addressing those present, the president of SYAH-SEY Shantana Barbé said more needs to be done to ensure that more girls and women develop basic IT skills and to increase their involvement in ICT related fields.

“Women and girls are one of the biggest sources of untapped potential in ICT. Statistics reveal that women holds only 27% of computer science jobs worldwide,” she said.

She said SYAH remains firm in its belief that young people are and will always be part of the solution to many of our greatest issues, for example the implementation of sustainable goals.

She also urged them to take an interest in ICT, if not to become a professional at least to realise its importance in our daily personal and professional lives.