Parity on female skills in IT

The ëskills gapí in IT is cause for concern for all in the industry, and not least for those seeking to resource major projects. Parity, the IT services company, has seen a shortage of those with project management and the ësoftí skills required to lead a team. Some have attributed this to the lack of women in the industry, but Heather Moore, managing director at Parity Business Solutions, does not believe the issue is that simple. It is more about the negative attitude of the IT industry towards people from a non-technical background, and the lack of ësoft skillsí training on offer to IT staff.



Heather has commented:

ìThere is a skills gap in IT for roles requiring skills normally deemed to be ëfemaleí: project management, team leaders and those who can communicate IT issues to the business.

ìWhile I donít advocate sexism about which gender can have which skills, it is true that IT can be an arrogant industry, talking over the heads of those not from a technical background.

ìWithout a technology degree, it is hard to get on, but equally, those with tech skills are not likely to receive ësofterí skills training: unless youíve worked for a very enlightened organisation, only highly technical training will have been thrown at you. This has been the case for quite some time, so itís also unlikely that IT staff have had a boss they can learn people skills from.

ìRather than the government spending money on trying to attract women into IT, it should give funding to projects educating the industry to widen its vision of what skills are needed.

ìIT has got too big for its boots: it should be there to make work easier and to improve the customer experience, not as an end in itself. If IT is to become re-aligned to the business, it needs confident, customer-facing managers to lead teams and bring about a service culture. And it doesnít matter whether these people are male or female, as long as they have the confidence to put technology back in its box.î