Australian Tech Giant TechnologyOne Partners with the Tech Girls Movement

Not for Profit Tech Girls Movement has teamed up with Australian software giant TechnologyOne as part of their ongoing mission to support the development of a more diverse IT workforce and encourage more girls to work in the sector.

The partnership promises to help take the Tech Girls Movement to the global stage, with TechnologyOne supporting the 2015 winners of the Search for the Next Tech Girls Superhero to go to San Francisco in July for the global Technovation pitch.

It comes after the team received an honorary invitation as the inaugural winners of the Technovation program in Australia last year.

Tech Girls Movement founder Jenine Beekhuyzen, told Pro Bono Australia News it was an exciting partnership that provided an opportunity for the girls to position their work among the global entries.

“So the partnership is fantastic as we get to expose some of our young audience, our tech girls, to a company that is local but who is also at the forefront of the industry,” Beekhuyzen said.

“TechnologyOne, being a global company, they can provide a great platform for us to be able to leverage that.”

As part of the new partnership TechnologyOne, which has been operating for three decades, also invited around 30 young female students to their offices so they could see what life is like as professionals in the world of tech.

“We had all the young girls in their offices, getting to meet them and see what it is like to be in a tech company,” Beekhuyzen said.

“They [the girls] get to see and experience what it is like to work in an awesome tech company and create the latest technology.

“TechnologyOne thought this was something they would like to get involved in, it’s having a direct impact in the community through the mentoring and seeing immediate benefits to what they are doing.

“What we love so much about working with TechnologyOne is their strong commitment to diversity and their dedication to supporting the next generation of female technology leaders.”

Beekhuyzen said encouraging diversity was very important for the sector.

“We need to create diversity because… the people who build our technology need to represent our society and that’s not currently the case,” Beekhuyzen said.

“If everyone looks the same, we all think the same, so diversity leads to better decision making, better innovation, better ideas and actually better financial performances … so it just kind of makes sense that we need different minds at the table.

“Research says there is two main reasons [for a lack of diversity in the sector], and it’s a lack of visible female role models and a lack of understanding of what people in technology do, so through our program, and this is where TechnologyOne is helping, they are providing mentors for our young audience, so they are matched up through our program to actually show them a real life role model and what they look like and what we do every day.

“I think there are a number of things we need to tackle. I think education is absolutely key, of our young females and males absolutely, teaching parents, but we also need changes in policy and support from the technology industry as a whole to have a very holistic approach to this, so there is not one solution but if we all work together we can make a big difference.”

TechnologyOne’s executive chairman, Adrian Di Marco said the partnership was part of the company’s continued commitment to fostering young talent and addressing the current shortage of STEM professionals in Australia.

“It is critical that we, as an Australian software company, get students interested in technology to sustain and grow our national technology industry,” Di Marco said.

“In order to address the current shortage of women in technology, we believe it is important that we support movements like this, which encourage a more diverse workforce.

“Our goal in joining the Tech Girls Movement is to inspire more women to study STEM and pursue careers in the IT industry.”