Earlier this week, CompTIA announced a new initiative to encourage women to pursue careers in the IT Industry. The program, called Dream IT, is a speaker outreach program through which women and men currently employed in IT fields will visit schools to share their experiences and inspire young women to get degrees in technology.
Nancy Hammervik, Senior Vice President, Industry Relations, CompTIA, said this about the new program in a press release this week: “Our goal is to create a grassroots movement and reach 10,000 women and girls with information about the opportunities, rewards and value of IT professions.”
According to major research, the IT industry is one of the fastest growing job markets today. In addition, although women comprise 50% of the workforce, they only hold 28% of core IT jobs.
“Young women can fill this gap, but we must do a better job of communicating their own potential first,” said Hammervik. “One solution is to begin educating and advocating for girls at an earlier age. This will be the principle mission of our Dream IT initiative.”
CompTIA will release a set of presentation materials for interested presenters in the summer of 2014. Anyone interested in becoming a speaker can contact Cathy Alper, Manager of the CompTIA Advancing Women in IT Community, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
