The EBU partnered with the British School of Geneva and the BBC to let female students take a closer look at what careers in ‘Information and Communication Technology’ can offer, on this year’s ‘Girls in ICT Day’.
It’s the kind of common notion that tends to shape young people’s biases at a very early age: that Technology and Science is something for boys. But why shouldn’t girls also get to enjoy the rewarding career paths, the creative potential, the sense of purpose and the freedom in terms of personal life choices that careers in these fields can offer?
The annual Girls in ICT Day was created to help remedy this. Under the patronage of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency, and focusing on ‘Information and Communication Technology’, the initiative consists of hundreds of grass-roots events run by organizations and companies around the globe. Generally scheduled on the third Thursday of every April, all events are run at the local level and designed to let female students take a closer look, hear from female professionals, and make up their own minds about a possible future in these fields.
This year, the EBU partnered with the BBC and invited female students of the British School of Geneva to join an online session that featured a panel of high-profile female technology professionals. The session also gave a glimpse behind the scenes of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest production.
“Technology and engineering work is really people work”, said the Elena Puigrefagut from EBU Technology & Innovation, who also spoke as part of the virtual panel hosted by the BBC. “It is people working together to create something that helps other people and society as a whole. There is never a day where I don’t feel part of something amazing.”
For a better sense of the wealth of options in the field, the young audience also got an inside view of the ongoing preparations for the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Rotterdam this year.
“The Eurovision Song Contest is all about bringing people together”, said Bruno Beeckman, Producer at Eurovision News Events. “And that’s how it is behind the scenes. It’s exciting, it’s creative, it’s about making something big happen, together, for all of us girls and boys on the technical side.”
‘Girls in ICT Day’ happens every year on the third Thursday of April. If you would like to join the EBU’s ‘Girls in ICT Day’ event next year, please contact communications@ebu.ch