Women are still being substantially under-represented in cyber and technology in Scotland, despite gains being made over the last few years.

Scotland currently needs to add around 13,000 new people to its tech sector per year to keep up with demand.

However, according to data from Tech Talent Charter, the number of women in technology roles increased by just 2% year-on-year in 2021, from 25% in 2020 to 27%.

With a lack of women in the workforce, the current gender disparity represents a huge loss of talent to the industry.

To try and help combat the problem, the ‘Women do Cyber’ programme – the first of its kind in Scotland – provides female-designed cyber training, with on-demand modules that seek to increase the number of women in cyber in Scotland.

Ronnie Beattie, Business Development Lead (STEM) at Glasgow Caledonian University, and Silka Patel, founder of Scotland Women in Technology (SWiT) spoke to DIGIT about the roles of women in technology, and what can be done to help fix the gender divide.

Women do Cyber Programme

The Women Do Cyber Programme is a joint initiative between SWiT, Glasgow Caledonian University and Cisco.

Beattie comments that Women do Cyber is a “pathway for entry level education and learning” within the “cyber environment”.

He adds: “I would call it a light touch in the sense that the idea is to dip your toe in and to get a feel for whether this is for you as a person.

“How is this going to benefit you and your career going forward? It might also benefit the business that you work in now or future opportunities within cybersecurity that will open for you,” he says.

Women do Cyber is fully funded, and the money is coming through a transition fund set up during the Covid-19 pandemic to help people move into quality employment.

The money helped people from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who have been in any industry or sectors where there is a requirement for more talent to be available for companies and organisations to attract.

Patel adds that the one of the key elements of the Women do Cyber programme is its accreditation.

“Although it starts off with entry modules for cyber, it progresses into a lot more in-depth knowledge.

“By the end, you are getting Cisco accreditations, and these accreditations are much desired in the technology sector, and for specific roles in cyber, and this sets women apart from those that have maybe just done a foundation in cyber.”

She continues: “We have identified barriers that women are facing when it comes to taking advantage of upskilling/reskilling programmes and helped to reduce those by specifically designing the modules around those concerns that women will have.

“This is very much designed for women to succeed. It’s not ‘try the course and see how you get on’. It’s seven months, and we will expect the intake to mostly complete that seven months because they will be mentored, guided, and supported through completion – we really have got their back.”

Barriers for women in cyber

The barriers that Patel mentioned are a legitimate concern. While the number of women working in the tech industry has increased since 2017, only 24% of tech jobs in Scotland are held by women.

Furthermore, less than 20% of those studying tech subjects at school, college, university, and apprenticeships are females.

Beattie believes that part of the issue stems from lack of access to education. One of the biggest barriers, he concedes, is that in most STEM subjects, physics has been an area that women tend to avoid.

“That was a prerequisite at our university at one point,” Beattie says, “and we recognised that this was something we should take away.”

He adds: “Therefore, it is no longer expected that someone has a physics background for our engineering programmes.”

In some signs of positive change, Beattie quotes recent statistics that found that, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the software engineering programme at his university saw a 40% uptake in female attendants in 2020.

“It’s almost 50%, and it has never been that high. The female uptick in engineering STEM subject areas is normally roughly 20%, which is not high enough,” Beattie adds.

Patel adds her thoughts on women getting into technology in Scotland by citing her own experience.

“As a woman in technology for the last 24 years, I see the industry flooded with men because it’s quite a daunting prospect for a women to enter.

“Often women will wonder if the environment would be right for them, and ask ‘what are the promotion prospects?’ Or ‘will a post be available to people who look like me?”

Patel adds that, often, you don’t find women in senior positions, not just from a gender perspective, but from an ethnic diversity perspective as well.

“I’m always quoted as saying ‘you cannot be what you cannot see’. It makes it difficult, so we need to do our best to flood the market with people who look, and sound like us,” she says.

Moving forward

“In the past it [the cyber sector] has been male dominated; there is no getting away from it,” Beattie comments.

However, both Beattie and Patel agree that there is a shift starting to happen. The Women Do Cyber programme gives women the opportunity to go on and do a Graduate Apprenticeship programme offering the chance of a degree in cybersecurity.

“This means that these people are very much sought after by industry, not just in Scotland, but across the world,” Beattie says.

“Therefore, if women start understanding the opportunities that these programmes have, and where they can lead them and of course the path of career development and opportunity for them and their family, and career, this is what we’re trying to do.”

He continues: “If they start to connect to that, then hopefully they’ll have the motivation to see that this is an opportunity that’s right there for them and they can touch it and they can feel it.”

Recommended

• Glasgow Science Centre opens Newton Flight Academy
• Data Protection Summit 2022 | The current state of legislation
• Edinburgh AI startup named among ‘Rising Stars’ of UK tech

And Beattie adds that he sees companies “coming around” to the idea of hiring more women. The organisations that he works with are trying to maintain a 50/50 split between men and women during the recruitment process.

Patel comments: “The reality is that, by not having women as part of the innovation teams in cyber when it comes to the development of technology solutions that have been brought to market, you are disadvantaging 50% of your population as end users.”

It is efforts like the Women in Cyber, plus the partnerships with industry and academia, that look to create a more positive environment tailored for women to enter the tech sector.

Women will get the support they need through a programme that is designed with them in mind, Patel says.

“This is made for you. Your employer is backing you; the government is backing you; the jobs are there within your current employer or elsewhere, should you want that.
Do it now, and we’re going to support you all the way.

“More initiatives like this [Women do Cyber] is what’s needed to inject that force for change to happen as opposed to sitting back and riding a wave that may be a lot slower.”

Get the latest news from DIGIT direct to your inbox

Our newsletter covers the latest technology and IT news from Scotland and beyond, as well as in-depth features and exclusive interviews with leading figures and rising stars.

To subscribe, click here.