Choose I.C.T. – females urged

By Diedre Fanene 29 April 2016, 12:00AM

The Associate Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi yesterday encouraged young Samoan females to consider careers in the growing field of information and communication technologies (I.C.Ts).

Lealailepule made the point during the local celebration of the International Girls in I.C.T Day at the T.A.T.T.E Building in Apia.

Organised by the International Telecommunications Union (I.T.U) and the United Nations, the day is designed to empower and encourage girls and young women to choose I.C.T.

In Samoa, the Office of the Regulator (O.O.T.R) facilitated a one-day workshop programme for girls’ students from Colleges around the country.

The programme included a Poster competition, mobile phone texting competition, Impromptu Speech Competition and Quiz Competition on I.C.T related topics. 

Regulator, Unutoa Auelua Fonoti, said the government has made it a priority to encourage young females and women to take up I.C.T.

 “According to the stats from the I.T.U only a small number of females are in this industry and not only that it is the lack of access for the females to use I.C.T services,” she said.

 “Other records from the I.T.U show that 30% of government employees around the world who are working as I.C.T officers are females which means 70% of them are men and 19% of I.C.T Managers are females which means 81% of them are men.

“In Samoa alone, it’s less than 1% of female taking this career which is very small.”

Unutoa added that I.C.T-related work is well paid.

 “Last year, the Samoa Bureau of Statistics conducted a survey and in that survey it says that an engineer and I.C.T workers are the highest paid people in Samoa throughout all fields. 

“So that is the other reason why we are encouraging females to take up I.C.T.”

By Diedre Fanene 29 April 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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