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13/10/2015

Microsoft crowns first female Apprentice of the Year

19 year old Tanya has won an award for her ICT skills and is now a role model for other girls to get into ICT

Youth unemployment in the United Kingdom has been hovering around the half-million mark for the last few years, and businesses – particularly in the IT sector – continue to grapple with the challenge of finding cost-effective ways to hire talented individuals. Finding ways to combat this challenge is vital to fill the growing number of jobs available, and to provide young people with worthwhile opportunities to get onto the career ladder.

Five years ago, Microsoft launched its Partner Apprenticeship programme in the UK to provide a more viable way for businesses to hire jobseekers with the relevant skills. The scheme offers young people across the country the opportunity to combine hands-on work experience within one of Microsoft’s partner businesses with Microsoft-certified qualifications. So far, over 7,000 young people have been placed in around 5,000 different companies across the country, with 93% of apprentices remaining within those businesses upon completion of the programme. On the basis of this success, Microsoft has pledged to create a further 3,500 apprenticeships by the end of 2015, so that even more jobseekers can benefit.

Over the course of the last five years, Microsoft has been working hard to change traditional perceptions of IT as a male-dominated career path, calling upon female role models from within the business to demonstrate the variety of opportunities available to young women in particular. “Whilst IT is perhaps traditionally perceived to be a male-dominated sector, it’s great to see female role models like Tanya embarking upon a career in technology and encouraging others to do the same,” says Hugh Milward, Director of Corporate Affairs, Microsoft UK. “We need young people with all different skillsets – both male and female – to play a part in driving the UK’s valuable IT industry forwards.”

Whilst there is still work to be done, it is now estimated that 22% of Microsoft apprentices are female, which is above industry average. Microsoft has begun to celebrate the achievements of its apprentices at the annual Apprentice of the Year competition. The 2015 winner is 19-year old Tanya Stittle, an apprentice at Cambridge-based mobile payments specialist Bango. Tanya was awarded the prize in recognition of her exceptional contribution to the team, which she joined 20 months ago. Her ability to quickly build the skills required to solve complex technical problems, develop a logical approach to her work and her readiness to take on new challenges were recognised as exceptional by the award panel. Tanya has supported several case studies, films and media panels promoting career opportunities for young females in IT. As a mentor to fellow team members, Tanya has developed a reputation for being a strong role model for other apprentices and in encouraging more girls to take on IT jobs.

As Tanya explains: “We need to get the word out to more girls, because generally a lot of women feel that IT is more of a male thing, but if they knew it could be the start of a successful career then they’d definitely want to. What I really love is the way we get to learn every day; from our training providers, from our work colleagues, it just builds your skill set more and more. And, of course, it’s always really interesting!”

Contributed by Microsoft, you can read the full story here.