“The International Days of Girls in Information and Communications Technologies is celebrated with the goal to encourage all young women and girls, when choosing their future occupations and faculties, not to pay attention to prejudice about how ICT is not for girls, but to be led by their own affinities instead”, said Tatjana Matić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications at the opening ceremony of the International Girls in ICT Day event, held at the Cvijeta Zuzorić Arts Pavilion in Mali Kalemegdan in Belgrade.
On the occasion of this important holiday, celebrated worldwide every fourth Thursday in the month of April and promoting the greater inclusion of girls in ICT, pupils from primary schools – from Zrenjanin, “22. oktobar” Primary School, from Smederevo, “Branko Radičević” Primary School, from Šabac, “Janko Veselinović” Primary School and from Ub, “Rajko Mihailović” Primary School – travelled to Belgrade as guests of the Ministry and attended lectures held by successful women from the field of ICT. An exhibition was also organized, showing the photographs made by the pupils and submitted for the award competition on the subject of “Digitally Creative”. The authors of the best photographs were presented with awards.
At the ceremony, Matić reminded the pupils that the beauty and poet from Dubrovnik that the Pavilion is named after, in her time overcame the limits imposed on women, managing to stand out with her talent.
“Recalling the history of women such as Cvijeta Zuzorić can inspire you to, just like her, neglect the opinions that some fields are not for the female gender. You have new possibilities, unimaginable during past times, even in your parents’ time. You can make use of this not only by selecting professions closely related to ICT, such as programming, but also any other field. New technologies are today a means to express all possible affinities and engage in the widest array of occupations. In fact, there are almost no jobs that can be performed without being familiar with new technologies, just like social life in general is made difficult without using the advantages of ICT”, noted Matić.
She stated that as many as 90 percent of school age girls express the potential of working in ICT, but a small number of them subsequently opt for this field. “Surveys show that the list of the highest demand occupations in Serbia is dominated by the IT profession. In Serbia there is currently demand for around 30,000 workplaces, with average salaries around 85,000 dinars. The European commission envisages that in five years Europe will lack human resources for around 900,000 workplaces in so-called ‘future professions’. On the other hand, there are fewer than 20% of women among IT experts, with the same percentage fewer in managing posts in IT companies. Therefore it is necessary to motivate girls to opt for new technologies during their education”, concluded State Secretary Tatjana Matić.
Girls in ICT Day is a project by the Global Network of Women in ICT, established under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union, at the proposal of the Republic of Serbia in 2010. Institutions, sectors, universities, institutes and companies in the field of ICT worldwide promote the use of ICT towards the economic and social empowerment of women, increasing interest among girls for equal opportunities for participation in ICT and the possibility of making a career in this field. Over 177,000 girls and young women participated in over 5,300 events to date, held on this occasion in 150 countries worldwide.
The ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia is celebrating Girls in ICT Day 2016 as part of the IT Ladies programme, part of the SMART&SAFE campaign for the development of information society.
