When I began Cyber Girls First (CGF) in 2014, the figures produced by the industry showed that out of the total employees in the computer and cyber workforce, 8% were women.
Eleven years later, the industry has grown exponentially, with 20% of the total being women. They are coming from a variety of backgrounds – graduates in computer science, those who are changing careers, and graduates from sponsored apprenticeships such as Cisco, Rolls Royce and the regional police forces.
More and more companies are moving towards internal apprenticeships. These are proving attractive to school-leavers who are reluctant to complete a three-year university course with debts of up to £50,000.
We have put on over 60 events around England and Wales either in corporate offices or on a university campus.
Girls in year 8 (aged 12 to 13) from local secondary schools spend the day on a campus, where they can absorb the atmosphere, see what’s available to them in graduate subjects, student accommodation, plus clubs which are available in sports, arts and sciences. Year 8 is chosen specifically because that is the time when they make their choice of options for GCSE.
New horizons
Many of the girls have come from families where no-one has been to university, so this opens new horizons they had never envisaged. A point I make to them in the university visits where they are spending the day, is that it’s on their doorstep and will not entail the high costs in train and bus travel if they choose to study further afield.
Over the Summer we have held events in Colt Technology, Lancaster University, and Eton College. Girls took part in code-breaking and hacking games and learned about the importance of using strong passwords.
At Lancaster University, schools took part in a simulation where they were given a notional budget and had to decide how much to spend on equipment and software to protect their financial assets, and firewalls to protect their customer data.
Three years ago, this was introduced as a challenge, and the winning school came out with a profit of £1,500. A couple of schools had lost everything because their protection was insufficient to stop the hacking.
This time, the winning school had avoided any incidents of hacking. They had invested wisely and finished with a profit of £3,500. The lowest scoring school had a profit of £1,500.
Apprenticeships
At Eton College, the girls from local state schools learned about apprenticeships with day release to university as an alternative to building up student debt, imparted by volunteers from Cisco and a retiree from J.P. Morgan Chase Bank.
In the next academic year, girls studying computer science, maths and physics at A-level will hear about careers in computer science at a course laid on by Lancaster University with input from Cyber Girls First volunteers. They will learn how to choose their best careers to match their strengths, and what to expect in interviews for university entry, apprenticeships and company interviews.
More events are planned at Aston University, Exeter, and London. The companies stepping in to host events include Vodafone and Databricks.
The latest results at GCSE show that girls are outperforming boys at A-level computing. The number of girls who began university courses in computer science in October 2024, rose by 8%.
The companies who are helping with this programme are looking to the future, where women will play an important role in protecting our infrastructure, data and intelligence. If any company would like to contribute in any way, be it large or small, please email [email protected] and enter CYBER GIRLS FIRST in the subject line.
Pat Ryan is founder of Cyber Girls First.
