Apple makes UK push to get more women into tech

Wouldn’t it be nice to see more women in senior roles in tech, particularly at Apple?

Apple continues to apply its corporate muscle in ways that may make good things happen.

This time it’s putting its weight behind February 11, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. It wants to get more young women into the tech industry. Good.

Bringing women into tech

In the UK, Apple, and the UK Electronic Skills Foundation (UKESF) are collaborating on a programme to give 400 young women insight and experience in the tech industry.

The Electronics sector is extremely important. The global semiconductor industry is the fourth largest industry in the world, and the global compound semiconductor market is expected to reach $136 billion by 2024, of which the UK have an 8% share.

The problem is that demand for employable graduates is outstripping supply.

Just 3,245 students enrolled on degrees in Electronic and Electrical Engineering in the UK in 2021, and just 335 were women.

The UKESF works to tackle this national skills shortage in a coherent way; it operates collaboratively with major companies and leading universities.

Girls into Electronics is just part of the UKESF’s wider strategy to address the gender imbalance in the Electronics Sector. To find out more, visit ukesf.org or get in touch at [email protected].

What’s happening?

The UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF), in collaboration with Apple, has announced its ‘Girls into Electronics’ programme for 2023.

This will provide opportunities for hundreds of girls between ages 15-18 to be inspired by Electronics and will be delivered in collaboration with 15 of the UK’s leading universities.

Some of the UK’s top universities are participating in the initiative, including Bristol, Imperial College London, Leeds and Southampton.,The events will take place in June and July 2023 students can register via the UKESF website (ukesf.org).

What they said

“We believe education can be a powerful force for equity, and help provide young women with the tools and opportunity to pursue a rewarding career in hardware engineering,” said Mari-Anne Chiromo, Apple Inclusion and Diversity Partnerships Lead, EMEIA.

“We’re thrilled to be working with the UKESF on this important initiative, to encourage more women from all backgrounds to study electronic engineering and improve the current gender imbalance in the field.”

Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF said: “Many students touch upon Electronics in their Physics and Computer Science lessons at school, but the breadth, complexity and importance of the field is often not fully understood. This initiative will ensure that more young people get to experience this fascinating and creative subject, and learn about the worthwhile opportunities available in Electronics Engineering.

What my former landlord said

Chi Onwurah MP, Shadow Minister (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) said:

“A strong Electronics and ‘deep tech’ industry is essential to the health of the UK economy but we know that the UK has a skills shortage in this critical sector. That’s why it’s great to see the work that the UKESF is doing encouraging more young people to pursue careers as Electronics Engineers. In particular, their Girls into Electronics initiative has the potential to make a real difference and it is something that we strongly support.”

(Onwurah, incidentally, has the joy of being one of my former landlords, from whom I rented a rather lovely flat in my most favorite of Earth’s cities, Lisbon for a while. If anyone with any power or influence is reading this, I’d swap London for Lisbon in a heartbeat, if I could only find a sustainable way to be there in the long term).

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