Boys aspire to work in IT, girls find it boring
The Internet organization Nominet, best known for running the .uk infrastructure, has compiled new research on the dream jobs of today’s students that shows how male students have begun to aspire for careers in technology while female students find the field less interesting.
The top three dream jobs of young boys all pertain to the tech industry, with computer game developers being number one, app developers being number two and website developers being number three. Twenty-four point eight percent of school aged boys would like to develop computer games while 17.2 percent envision themselves developing apps and 15.1 percent hoping to build websites. A sportsman is the fourth most popular dream job for boys at 14.6 percent followed by entrepreneur at 13.4 percent.
Young girls on the other hand have very different aspirations with the top dream job being that of a fashion designer at 13 percent. This is followed by graphic designer at 12.9 percent, teacher at 12.8 percent, computer game developer at 12.3 percent and entrepreneur at 11.5 percent.
Besides the overwhelming male interest in careers in IT related fields, it also quite interesting that traditional careers including being a police officer, lawyer, doctor or nurse and even being an astronaut all fall under seven percent.
Governments and schools worldwide have continued to push girls into careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) jobs. The IT industry has one of the biggest gender imbalances despite recent efforts to attract young females to jobs in the sector.
Nominet’s research found that 41 percent of young women find jobs in IT boring, 35 percent find them too technical, 28 percent find them too hard and 16 percent find IT jobs too male-dominated.
The company’s CEO, Russel Haworth remains troubled by the failed efforts of governments and schools to attract female students to the IT industry: "I’m greatly encouraged that young people see the advantage of working in this rewarding and innovative industry and understand that studying ICT is key to securing their dream job. However, we’re putting the future of our digital economy at risk if we recruit from only half of the talent pool and fail to encourage more girls into IT".
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