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Corporate Social Responsibility: What’s the big deal?

Organisations (whether profit or non-profit) need to keep in mind, CSR is part of a long-term strategy in order to attract and retain customers. If Bear grylls published this, he would describe this as a means of SURVIVAL.

When thinking of long-term strategy, who’s the target market? The next generation ie, *drum roll please* … Millennial’s! We are the first generation to grow up with a strong awareness of issues such as the climate crisis. We can laugh all we want about the free-spirited vegans, that partake in extinction rebellion marches, but the fact is, if businesses want to succeed- you can’t ignore them!

What does CSR mean for Tech?

Seeing as there are immense amounts of roles needing to be filled in tech, millennials need to be the next generation of the tech workforce. This is a fact that we probably all know by now but how do we attract them?

Millennial’s, myself included, view CSR as a form of self-regulation and empowerment. It helps us to express who we are as individuals. If an organisation takes part in ways to give back to the community and better the environment, this makes a millennial to want to be a part of that organisation.

The stats don’t lie

· 75% of Millennial’s would take a pay cut to work with a socially responsible company.

· 76% of Millennial’s consider a company’s social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work.

· 64% of Millennial’s won’t take a job if a company doesn’t show strong CSR practices.

· 88% of Millennial’s say their job is more fulfilling when they are provided opportunities to make positive impact on social and environmental issues.

Sir David Attenborough aka the Millennial Social Influencer?

As a general overview of the importance to Millennial’s as consumers and not employees, even though it might spark some sort of PTSD, I’m going to give you some facts that was originally sourced for my dissertation. Nothing wrong with a bit of recycling, right?

In the last year, there has been a rapid increase in Millennial’s shopping at independent green grocers purely because of the over- use of plastic in supermarkets. What’s spurred this on? It’s been suggested to be because of the media coverage around the airing of ‘blue planet’ hosted by the nations sweet-heart Sir David Attenborough. This TV series outlined how our oceans are being ruined and wiped out by plastic waste. After the airing of this, over 70% of 18-24 years started using re-usable water bottles.

Now you know the basics, lets look at CSR disasters and triumphs. Let’s start with the interesting news, the CSR faux pas.

Stop horsing around!

Let’s have a #ThrowbackThursday to what was called ‘The biggest food fraud of the 21st Century’, aka the everyday ‘beef’ burgers from Tesco which instead of mooing, they said ‘NaAaAyy it’s time to hit the hay’ because it was in fact 29% horse meat. What’s the big deal? The only way to answer this is look how it effected Tesco’s place in the market. This scandal alone wiped £300 million off the market value! This is the detrimental effects that deceiving the nation can have.

Fast Fashion that resulted in fast deaths

In 2013 the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh killed over a thousand underpaid garment workers that were working for retailers that we know and love, H&M and Zara. That pretty dress you bought last week, isn’t so pretty now? A forthcoming book called ‘How to break up with fast fashion’ which is set to be released January 2020 outlines the adverse effects of ‘the most photographed generation’s’ shopping addiction. Brands such as Zara have reacted to this by pledging to make production ‘eco-friendly’, expect to see brands such as H&M and Zara place their CSR efforts at the focal point of their advertising campaigns.

#NoPalmOilChristmas

Let’s look at another UK supermarket as they have been under scrutiny for many years now, because of things such as under paying farmers, green-house gas emissions, over- use of plastic etc. Remember the Iceland Christmas Advert 2018? Well, you may not remember because this ‘triumph’ got removed from our TV screens for being ‘too political’.

Iceland teamed up with Greenpeace last year to create a controversial Christmas ad which set itself aside from the ever-respected John Lewis Christmas ads. It was an animated short film featuring an orangutan and the destruction of its rain forest habitat at the hands of palm-oil growers. The advert outlined that Iceland was removing palm oil from their products, therefore using a Christmas advert as an opportunity to gain CSR points. Even though it got taken down by the ASA (advertising standards association), did this really mean the advert wasn’t a success?

· It was viewed more than 65 million times over social platforms.

· A petition was also created to get it back on our screens and got over 670,000 signatures

· The ad has had three million views on Iceland’s YouTube channel,

· 13 million views on its Facebook page and more than 90,000 retweets from its Twitter handle.

What brands would you name the best and worst for enforcing CSR policies into their business strategy and advertising?

Written by Sophia Ghahramani

Client Testimonial – Cirrus Networks

Logical recently worked with Matt, Solutions Architect and Chris McLaughlin, COO at Cirrus Networks. We introduced them and placed Matt in his job at Cirrus Networks in a record breaking 48-hour turnaround. We spoke with both of them to gather information about the hiring process went.

Chris gave an overview of the process, “Debbie reached out to me on Wednesday to have a Q&A to define expectations. I met with Matt on Thursday morning, he had a second interview on Thursday afternoon, we put the offer out on Friday and he started the job on Monday.” This is a remarkably quick placement considering the average time from a CV being submitted to a final stage of interview is around 4-6 weeks. Fortunately, Chris reports directly to the CEO which give him a direct line to get the right approvals required to move things quickly.

Matt talked about the recruitment process being “very streamlined and efficient” and said he received all the information he needed to be successful. Chris also described the process as efficient and spoke about challenges that we overcame, “Getting references in such a short time frame was a challenge but Debbie turned this around very quickly and it wasn’t a roadblock for us.”

Chris described Logical as having “tenacity and the ability to reach the right market and get the right candidates”. He said in contrast to other agencies that we “have a desire to get the right candidates in front of us. A lot of agencies will just put anyone in front of you to show they are working on something but that didn’t happen.”

We can’t take all the credit for the successful placement of Matt. For things to run this smoothly, we need a clear overview of the candidate’s expectations and a thorough understanding of the skills required to be successful. Aligning what a candidate wants out of their career with clients’ business objectives coupled with open channels of communication ensures everyone is happy and gets what they want.

It’s a pleasure working with brands who recognise the importance of engaging with the right talent quickly and providing a good candidate experience. This is exactly the kind of engagement the market needs and we look forward to our continued partnership with Cirrus Networks. Congratulations to Matt for securing the role and thank you to Chris for helping make this process so seamless.

Candidate Testimonial – Ryan O’Connor

Logical are always striving for ways we can improve our services. As part of this mission, we’ve started reaching out to candidates and asking for feedback.

First up to participate was Ryan O’Connor. He works as an Enterprise Account Executive at Nitro in Sydney. Ryan is an apple enthusiast; he’s got an adorable shih tzu named Fluffy and he’s moved house 12 times in the last 16 years within Sydney.

We asked Ryan to tell us what his candidate journey was like with Logical: “It was a rigorous application process, but I was prepared well for every stage by Debs. She called me most days to catch up on updates, to the point we became good friends. She was on top of everything and worked with such efficiency. She’d call me before interviews to get me pumped up and give me the energy to perform well. She always gave me feedback and could tell me all the information I needed to know throughout the process.”

Ryan then went on to say how we’re different to other recruiters: “Recruiters fall into 3 categories; the worst category are those who say they have an opportunity, you send your CV to them and then you never hear from them again. The middle ground, average recruiter, puts you forward for an opportunity and once the decision comes back on whether or not you were successful, you never hear from them again. They don’t provide feedback on why you weren’t successful for the role or if you get the role, they never ask how you are getting on once you begin. Then you have the category Logical fall in to – with Debs the relationship extends beyond the active job opportunity. There’s a lot of contact throughout the whole process and even now after placement in the role – we’re friends. She takes an interest in everything, she would take into consideration fatigue from doing constant interviews and stood out amongst other recruiters when prepping me for interviews and bringing my energy levels back to 100% to give me the best possible opportunity to be successful.”

Ryan said his favourite thing about Logical was the energy and enthusiasm Debs had throughout the whole process. He was also very pleased he didn’t have to do any negotiations himself with regards to package. Debs worked on getting him the best possible deal to present to him which meant he could happily accept the first offer.

Thanks to Ryan for taking the time to chat to us – we’re happy to receive such positive feedback!

Women left jobless? This is how we fight back!

If you want a job done get software to do it for you

Artificial Intelligence – the technology that’s attempting to think, feel, understand and solve solutions similarly and in some cases better than human beings. I can see the headlines now- Robot Love Island hitting your screens Summer 2040!

As time progresses, so does technology and the modern workforce, AI breakthroughs such as a ground-breaking self-driving car means human labour is so 2000 and late. There is a lot of research that outlines the jobs that are at risk but little information on what jobs are ‘safe’ from being taken over by technology. Artificial intelligence is creating new jobs as it develops, these may include algorithm designers or AI data labellers. But the real question is WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR WOMEN?

The report published by the Financial Times, showcases their take on how this will affect women. Futurists are very confident that the lack of emotional intelligence in AI, which women historically have, means an EI workforce will be needed – thus Creating new roles.

A report published by Capegemini found an astonishing 83% of organisations believe an EI (emotional intelligence) workforce will be a necessity in years to come. It’s an exciting prospect that women could transition into leadership roles, as it’s suggested women may be more likely than men to have the skills that can’t me taught and are hard to learn, such as a positive attitude and creativity. However, how realistic is this?

Being attacked at all angles

For women to prosper we need to be realistic, and to be completely honest it’s a double-edged sword. It’s fantastic that more jobs may become available for women in AI to help break this gender stereotype, but it’s also taking a lot of women out of jobs as a computer can do their job for them.

The challenge with this prospect is that women that aren’t already in a tech job, will have to re-skill and re-educate themselves to be able to flourish in an EI workforce. For example, Karen from finance who has been sorting out the company’s payroll for 20 years, AI will soon be able to do her job for her and leave Karen looking for a new role. Is she going to want to re skill and transition into a job to work for an EI workforce? Maybe! But having been in the job for so long, this transition will not be smooth or plain sailing. It’s suggested by the financial times that if women take advantage of these transitional opportunities into leadership roles like they are very capable, we could retain their current share – not increase just retain. If there is a trouble with the transition, then it could make the general gender equality gap even wider.

So, to put this into perspective, not only is the technology sector underrepresented to by women, but now technology is expected to take a large proportion of women out of jobs.

Don’t accept defeat!

Just to highlight that this article doesn’t just assume that more women are in administrative roles than men, let’s look at the stats.

A report published in 2018 by the House of Commons found:

– 2.5 million women in 2018 were employed in secretarial and administrative roles across the UK.

-Less than 1 million men, were employed in secretarial and administrative roles across the UK

-The main industry women are working in is, health and social work.

Use your competitive advantage and blossom

A 2017 Harvard study found the need for social-skill intensive jobs in computer science increased by 12% since 1980 and the wage for these jobs has increased, just as the wage has increased for tech jobs. This highlights there is still a massive need for social skilled roles, so – pair women social skills and caring qualities, with the right education for roles in AI, you have competitive advantage over men and the perfect candidate is formed. These ‘soft skills’ should be celebrated and not scoffed at, these qualities give women a competitive advantage as they are hard to be learned or taught.

Therefore, reverting back to the previous article I published, it regresses back to the in balance of opportunities that are introduced to females at an early age in school: will women have access to the same networks, education and opportunities that their male counterparts do? It may be harder for Karen from finance who sorts the pay roll to transition into a job in tech, but if a girl at the age of 14-18 got introduced to the idea of having as leadership or managerial role in technology, then this will give them time to develop the skills that are needed and the need to transition won’t be there.

Leadership roles are extremely feasible for women, but leadership roles need to be introduced as a very achievable goal for children at school to give them confidence that they can accomplish from an early age. In the words of Michelle Obama “When girls are educated, their countries become stronger and more prosperous”, ie. If girls aren’t educated, tech will stay as a man’s world and female employment rates will spiral into a black hole.

Written by Sophia Ghahramani

Diversify or Die

The tech industry is undeniably growing at a rapid rate

The need for innovative technology is unquestionably at high demand- not just for organisations but from consumers. Who would have thought at the start of this century that you wouldn’t need to press a button to unlock a phone, or play a song. For any business wanting to succeed in this digital age, penetrating a new market which steers away from your typical customer can be risky. Therefore, you need a forward- thinking strategy and assurance that you have the resources to be able to prosper. Not being able to keep up with our ever-changing environment, can result in an abrupt holt for any organisations growth.

To put this into perspective, let’s use some classic examples-Blockbusters and HMV. We all have fond memories (emphasis on the memories) with these physical media retail stores. They were the go-to stores to go buy the Britney Spears album in your low- rise denim flares. Then came along Netflix, Spotify, Apple Music etc. These organisations gave an easily accessible way to find films, TV shows and songs, without having to get off the sofa. Blockbusters and HMV failed to grow with change of attitude of consumers, ie. Why move when you can pay a monthly subscription for all the songs/films/TV shows that you need?

What was the result? One Blockbusters store left in the entire world which is hanging on by a thread, and beloved HMV have gone into administration 2 times in the past 6 years.

AWS : Taking a risk to dominate

According to the research consultancy IDC, by the end of 2019, the global IT industry is on track to be worth $5 trillion which is around £3.8 trillion. Therefore, whether you are a start up organisation or an established PLC, going into a market with high demand could be beneficial as a long-term strategic decision.

Amazon have a track record of ‘keeping up with the times’, becoming a competitor for Netflix they created ‘amazon video’. Remember, when buying a physical book was the only way to read a book? Then the Kindle came along. Having to swipe through a playlist to find a song? Imagine simply saying ‘Alexa’ and the song you want and not a finger needs to be lifted, imagine…

From all of these B2C NPD’s, AWS (Amazon Web Services) accumulates over half of Amazon’s profit. To outline the success of this, one in three internet users visit an AWS powered website on a daily basis, even direct competitors such as Netflix are heavily reliant on it. Followed by market leading vendors such as Microsoft, IBM and Google; Amazon is ranked first by Gartner’s Magic Quadrant in the Cloud market. Amazon have accomplished this through diversifying their product range, which have kept them ahead of the game through and helped them grow geographically. Acquisition of company’s such as Think box Software earlier this year and Cloud 9 in 2016 have all helped AWS to have market dominance.

Nokia

Everyone that was lucky enough to have been born before the 21st century, all remember having that Nokia brick phone that you only really use to play snake and for a few phone calls-but wow it fits in your pocket and doesn’t have an aerial long enough to play fencing with!

Having made their mark and engaging mass appeal for the first time really for a mobile phone, you could call them a pioneer in the market for the 21st century. However, as there was less competition in the infancy of the market, aka the days of channels 1-5 on TV, with the development of smart phones from the likes of Apple and Samsung- Nokia couldn’t keep up. Going from a leader, to a follower, to falling behind just like Woolworths.

However, Nokia is still relevant behind the scenes. The primary organisation provides network infrastructure around the world, they are also in acquisition of ‘here’ which is the mapping software of choice for 80% of cars with built in dashboard navigation. So even though the much beloved mobile phone brand from a B2C perspective fell harder than a tonne of (Nokia) bricks, Nokia have gone through the right strategic decisions to be able to resurrect and come out on the other side.

This poses the question- What companies can you name that have diversified and failed? Or companies that haven’t diversified and had to attempt survival.

Who will be the next to make big strides in the tech industry?

Written by Sophia Ghahramani

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it’s my Uber eats.

Want to minimise social contact at all costs? According to the e-marketer February 2016 research shows, more than three quarters of US internet users would choose a drone as a form of delivery service.

Uber eats announced their new drone design, which is set to be tested out in San Diego in summer 2020. Drones and delivery robots have been trialled and tested and are still being developed by organisations such as Domino’s, Amazon and UPS. But what are the pro’s and cons to an idea which is perfect for someone that’s that socially inept, they’ll even avoid contact with the pizza delivery driver?

Will it work?

Whether drone delivery service will work or not will be down to the consumers. So, what do they think? According to research conducted by the e-marketer in 2016, the main reasons why consumers wouldn’t trust drone delivery service are; safety concerns, theft concerns and damaged packages. After the drone disruption at Heathrow Airport in January this year, it’s not a shock that people have safety concerns in relation to drones.

Google wing launched their delivery drone in Canberra, Australia in April this year. The drone was used to deliver takeaway food, coffee and medicines. The trials for the drones had attracted complaints from the residents, as they thought the drones were too loud and intrusive. The residents may have thought this, as google weren’t allowed to fly the drone over busy roads, god forbid… suburban housewives were interrupted whilst complaining about their husbands working away too much during the weekly ‘book club’ meeting. Google, you should be ashamed!

A further rule that was set was only being allowed to fly in the day, after 8:00 am. This poses the question… If we had the same rules in the UK, could it be launched in the corporate zoo that is London? And more importantly what about the 3:00 am McDelivery on a Saturday night that you won’t remember on Sunday morning?

Drones win the race!

Transport is the biggest polluting sector, that’s why residents of London just love to ride their bicycle (and ignore traffic lights!).

Therefore, one of the main advantages for using drones as a form of delivery service for large corporations, is the reduction of carbon emissions, by using drones instead of trucks, cars, motorbikes etc. If executed this would give Uber Eats a competitive advantage through being socially responsible (and probably attract more #vegans) and using this as the focal point when advertising that this is the USP of the drones.

Research conducted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found within 4km range of a battery powered delivery, consumed less energy per package and per kilometre than trucks. Therefore, drones can deliver packages quicker and can consume less energy than other forms of transport such as cars. As its quicker, drones have also been tested to be used for medical services. Defibrillator drones were tested in Sweden in 2017, it was found that the drones could arrive at the incident four times faster than an ambulance.

Uber driver epidemic

As exciting as technology advances, making you feel like you’re in back to the future are, what about the Uber eats drivers? If there is more demand for delivery drones this means, there is less need for delivery drivers and more need for, let’s say ‘drone experts.

Taking into consideration this information I raise the following concerns to do with delivery drones. ‘Pilots’ for these drones will have to be trained in driving them, how long does it take to be trained in drone driving to be able to ensure they are a safe driver? -what an oh so very 2019 kind of question to ask! The drones have been suggested to soon be able to autonomous so no delivery driver will be needed. Remember when fully autonomous cars were launched, they were meant to make the driver redundant, however Uber were even wanting to create a driver-less taxi service when tragically in early 2018, a woman was killed in a test run in Arizona. Proving that if a human isn’t controlling it, is it safe?

This raises the question, will drones have a revolutionary takeover for all food, drinks and medical deliveries. ‘Timber’, a Singapore based restaurant chain use drones to deliver the food from the kitchen to the tables. It cost them $20,000-$60,000 for each drone, so looking at these figures, it seems large organisations such as Uber and Amazon will be the only lucky ones to be able to afford innovative technology such as this. Therefore, the independent takeaways will have to stick with the ‘old-fashioned’ delivery driver for now.

Question: Do you think delivery drones for organisations such as Uber and Just Eat will work? Do you think it’s safe?

Written by Sophia Ghahramani

From Graduands to Graduates…All the gear and no idea!

Leaving university can feel like the biggest anti-climax since the 2018 world cup. I can safely say for me and a lot of my friends the fear of the unknown was the most daunting factor. Every year up until now your structured routine has been planned out for you by the UK education system, and now the fate of your success is in your hands! That rare feeling of “anything could happen!” enthusiasm, inspiration and freedom that university gave us, can feel impossible to replace. The best three years of your life has now finished and you’re wishing time machines existed so you can rewind back to freshers.

As exciting as the Uni experience is for some of us (not all of us), you’ve made life- long friends and probably life-long liver damage. The la la land that is University had to sadly come to an end at some point, right?

What I’ve gathered since being a graduate is that there’s three options when you leave uni. 1. Can’t quite let go? Want another £9000 worth of debt? Do a masters! 2. In the words of Dolly Parton.. working 9-5! 3. Go travelling because you’ve got the rest of your life to get a job and you’re still a baba.

Post Grad Blues

With whatever direction you chose, the process after leaving university I feel hasn’t been touched on enough. You’ve heard of post-natal depression. Well, there is actually a term used for graduates called ‘post-graduate depression’, for arguments sake let’s call it ‘post-graduate blues’. Of course, being at university is an incredibly mentally challenging experience and is a subject that should be talked about even more than it is. But there are few studies that have been conducted on graduate’s mental health after university.

25% of students will suffer depression during university. A study conducted by Student Minds alongside City Mental Health Alliance, found that almost half of recent graduates believed their mental wellbeing had considerably declined since leaving university. 40% described themselves as feeling ‘socially isolated’ and 44% believed their friends were more successful than they were.

All your achievements that you have attained, suddenly has become very bitter-sweet. This can be spurred on by numerous factors. I personally found when I left university, when on the hunt for a 9-5er, even though I had a piece of paper telling me you’ve done amazing, why was I having such a struggle with trying to find a job that isn’t selling mobility scooters in the middle of town? If you’re one of the lucky ones that got into medical school, you’ve basically got a job waiting for you when you leave university, but if you don’t have a specialised degree as such, it can be very difficult to find a job after university.

Surely, the three years at university, £51,000 worth of debt, and numerous all-nighters in the library means I could get a job that would at least give me a bit of stability?

I’ll conclude by giving advise that a careers adviser most likely won’t give you.

1. Don’t compare yourself to others, and obviously social media does not help with this, just because people are posting about their flashy new life-this doesn’t mean they are actually happy! People that have been able to get a job at well-known brands in London, Manchester etc! We all move at our own pace and comparing yourself to others will only holt your chances of succeeding!

2. Don’t panic if you don’t have a plan for the future, nothing goes to plan! Gear your future in the right direction by doing something you enjoy (that preferably will make your bank account happy) and go from there!

3. Happiness comes first! When applying for jobs, honestly going through an agency helped me find a job that was suited to me as much as I was suited to them. This is a concept I didn’t think of before going to an agency as I had the mentality that I’ll just go for whatever job I get offered. But,in reality, most of your time is spent at that job so if it doesn’t fit to your personality then you and that job will have a short- lived relationship, and this cycle will continue. Sites like Indeed are great for part-time jobs, but going to an agency helps ensure that you will be 100% happy in that role.

Nevertheless, it’s safe to say making that scary decision in 2016 to move from Nottingham to Leeds, was genuinely the best decision I have ever made- three years on and I am a fully-fledged Yorkshire cup of Tetley!

Written by Sophia Ghahramani

Calling all Millennial’s..the Tech Industry needs you!

Employment rates falling at the fastest rate for four years

Strong growth rates of employment have been a commendable aspect of the UK economy for the past few years. However … this has come to a sudden halt and has resulted in employment rates dropping at the fastest rate for four years. This could be due to the storm cloud lingering over everyone’s heads that is Brexit, which is making businesses more cautious when deciding when to push to button on hiring new heads.

Employment in Technology

As technology naturally advances, so will the requirement to evolve the workforce and the type of skill set an organisation will need to acquire.

When comparing tech employment rates to the general employment rates of the UK, they couldn’t be more conflicting. The tech employability rates are increasing, and the general employability rates are decreasing. The storm of brexit may not affect the tech industry when looking at the fast-growing employment rates. This may be due to the number of roles that need to be filled so tech employers may not have the time to be cautious. Let’s look at the recent stats of employment in the tech industry.

Office of National Statistics figures shows that from November 2018-January 2019 employment rose to 32.71 million.
The UK’s tech sector is growing 2.6 times faster than the rate of the UK economy.
Employment rates are rising however ONS still states it is an industry with many unfilled roles.
94% of tech employers believe there is a wide skills shortage in the industry.
84% of employees in the technology industry have the option of flexible working, compared to the UK average of 65%.

According to the ONS, employees’ total average weekly pay increased by 1.5% on the year in January 2019.
Companies are having to use new techniques and processes in order to attract and retain their existing staff. Organisations are ensuring transparency, creating incentives and increasing pay. This raises the question, why are these methods having to be put in place? The answer…. Because there is a black hole level skills shortage across the tech sector and company culture, brand image and even typical projects worked are all important career choice factors in a candidate driven market.

Technology needs Women

When you ask a teenage girl, what’s their dream job? You wouldn’t expect them to say, “solution architect” or “pre-sales consultant”, would you? If the tech industry wants to see long-term increased rates of employment, this gender stereotype needs to be diminished. An astonishing 94% of tech employers believe there is a skills shortage, but this may be due to the gender gap.

The stats don’t lie:

-3% of females say technology is their first choice.

-78% of students can’t name a famous female working in technology.

-16% of females have had a career in technology suggested to them, as oppose to 33% of men.

-5% of leadership positions in the technology sector are held by women.

In 2018 the UK was made up of 33.65 million women and 32.79 million men. Knowing these figures surely indicates that the reason roles aren’t being filled is because the large proportion of the population isn’t being introduced to tech/believe in the gender stereotype.

The next generation to remove the stereotype

Using incentives to entice more workers in technology is arguably a short-term fix, for long term growth of tech employability rates, the problem needs to be identified at the source.

An article published by the Guardian states that teachers are gradually doing their bit to motivate young girls to get into computer science. The problem isn’t at GSCE level as girls are as likely to study science, engineering etc as much as males are. The problem? There is an under representation of girls choosing these subjects at A-Levels, because they believe the tech geek stereotype of friendless, nerdy and isolated -which talking from experience from once being a teenage girl, these aren’t traits you want at this socially challenging time. This out ways the positive attributes of the high pay and ‘smart’ persona that comes with the role. It’s not that girls don’t have the capabilities to work in tech- for example more females than males achieved A*-C at a-level than males in 2014.

When looking at a simple psychological theory, we are born as tabula rasa’s (a blank slate), which in basic terms means we can become anyone or anything we want. Our later life is determined by a combination of nature and nurture factor’s, we have innate capabilities however we are evidently a product of our surroundings. The persona of the tech world needs to teenage girls to be able to create the next generation of WOMEN IN TECH.

A question I raise: How would you describe the stereotype in technology and do you think glamorising it to girls in schools/ college would help defeat this gender in balance?

Written By Sophia Ghahramani

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophia-ghahramani-618996153/