In Romania, the focus on the IT field is more than a trend at the moment. The career goals of both women and men have changed, and the decision to reconvert is materialized in actions.
Attending vocational training courses and attending tech and career coaching events are only part of the activities undertaken by women who want a different future in their careers.
Even within IT School, a local training company which trains daily men and women into digital and IT skills and competences, and finally helping them to find related jobs on the local market, on the training side, they are pleased to let us all know that almost half of the number of participants is represented by girls and young women – more precisely 41% of their trainees, during their last 5 years of activity in Timiș County, Romania.
The percentage difference tends towards equilibrium, and this is due to the opportunities in the field. Indeed, the trends of ladies and gentlemen are oriented towards Software Testing, Web Development and Programming courses, the most important achievement being the success rate of IT School graduates, for example, the percentage of employability is even 100% for certain groups formed only from women.
In the period 2014 – 2015 the share (F) was lower than at present but also courses which they organized at that time were mostly focused on language programming.
During that period, training courses addressed to persons solely interested in a new IT career, were still in the beginning. However, along with the trend, the female participants’ number started to increase as well.
There is a trend that tends to maintain itself right from the beginning. Namely, Females are more oriented towards IT-related courses such as Software Testing, Graphic Design, Online Marketing, etc. However, in the last 2 years, IT School noticed an increase in the number of interested ladies in programming courses, about 40% in each group.
If at the beginning the numbers revolved around 10%, maximum 20% of females in a group, they now easily reach 40%. This is based on several aspects, but the most important aspect is the promotion by multinationals of (F) in key positions, as well as NGOs actions of promoting equal opportunities in the field and periodic organization of meetups addressed exclusively for females with specific topics by different communities or IT companies.
The retention rate of women in the courses is much higher compared to that of men, this being 90%. In general, women complete the training programs, also having the highest attendance rate in the extra-course activities they do organise. Given that the Romanian audience is composed in 80% of people who undergo professional retraining, for many of them, entering a new field of activity also means a downgrade in terms of salary.
IT salaries though, are statistically superior to other fields of activity, in the beginning (Junior or Entry-Level as they are also called starting positions in IT) have an average comparable to that of jobs in other industries.
The average salary of a beginner is between 500 – 800 euro, depending on the level of knowledge and technology in which the junior specializes. Following the recommendations that IT School makes at the end of the course, they found that women accept a downgrade much more easily the men and are willing to assume this thing because they know what the potential of this field is. Another reason why they would accept a downgrade is because of the safety which a technical job offers in the long run. If for the courses organized in the classroom the weight of females is 40% for the online ones this is 49%.
Some fun statistics:
- 2 Software Testing groups organized in 2019, were composed exclusively of women – 12 in each group
- Graphic Design groups have a permanent component of 60% of women. I guess they are more creative than men. 😉
- in Online Marketing groups, the share is 60% of women. Again, they might be better in Marketing as well. Good for them!
- In non-technical courses, where tools such as Microsoft are taught, the female weight is constantly over 80%. That is a nice number to see!
- In courses where programming languages are studied, the female weight is always higher for technologies that involve more creativity vs. very technical ones (e.g. Web Development VS C++). If in Web Development groups, there is a constant of 40% of females, in C ++ there is often 100% men.
Kudos to IT School for enriching the IT market with women professionals and for applying this inhouse as well!
The average age of the participants female is 25-30 years. The IT School team has the following weight: Operating staff: 90% females, Trainers: 40% females.
Article written by EOS Romania
