State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications Tatjana Matić will open the International Girls in ICT Day, which will be marked in Serbia on Thursday April 24, 2014, starting at 10 a.m., in the MP’s Club “Klub Poslanika”, Tolstojeva 2.

The event is being organized by the Ministry of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications, and this year, 150 female graduates from Belgrade high schools will be addressed by successful women from the ICT sector, as well as the pedagogical, activist and entrepreneurial sector.

This is the fourth year in a row that the Girls in ICT Day is being marked. In previous years, different events had been organized across the globe with the aim of bringing ICT closer to young women, as well as to present them with the employment possibilities in that field, and to encourage them to think about a career in the ICT sector, or to use ICT in their jobs.

The initiative to mark the day which is dedicated to motivating young women to opt for a career in the field of ICT, engineering and science, came from the Republic of Serbia, and the proposal was accepted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2010.

Information and communication technologies are an excellent opportunity for successful careers for women around the world. The activities organized every fourth Thursday in April, are aimed at raising awareness of the criteria when choosing a profession, encouraging girls to choose a profession based on their own interests and talents, and not based on stereotypes about the division between male and female jobs. This is an opportunity to become familiar with all the areas of education, to gain first contacts for their future careers, as well as to provide successful women with inspiration to follow through on their intentions.