NAN-H-46
Training
By Chiazo Ogbolu
Lagos, Jan. 13, 2017(NAN) The Nigeria Women in Information Technology (NiWIIT) said on Friday that early training of girls in Information Communication Technology (ICT) would bridge the gender gap in the industry.
Mrs Felicia Oyeyinka, Coordinator NiWIIT, Lagos Chapter, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that such early training would give girls room for a good vision and a better future.
“In today’s world, women’s participation in programming, software development and anything that has to do with computer is very scanty.
“The world is going cloud computing, and a time is coming for everybody everywhere, all contents, everything in the house to be controlled remotely.
“If our youths, especially girls, are given the opportunity from an early age, this gender disparity will no longer be there,” she said.
Oyeyinka said that in bridging the gap, NiWIIT had also embarked on a talent hunt where girls in schools, who want to go into sciences, especially computer science, were trained and encouraged to go further.
She said that the training would be quarterly, with people being deployed in the field to various schools for that purpose.
The coordinator urged the government and philanthropists to come to their aid, as the project would be big and capital intensive.
Oyeyinka advised mothers to be involved by encouraging the girls in the right direction and in the right perspective.
She said that in the area of security, the girls, with knowledge of cloud computing, would be abreast of good platforms they would use to safeguard themselves.
“In other climes, children at an early stage are taught robotics programming, so that they would have interest in computer science, and this is what we intend doing here.
“The talent hunt will be in two categories; the primary and secondary sections will be called NiWIIT Junior Ambassador, while the tertiary section will be NiWIIT Senior Ambassador,” she said.
Oyeyinka noted that the recent development in IT showed that technology was changing the way people think, live and do things.
She said that there was need to see that girls were carried along in the area of ICT.
Oyeyinka said that when girls were developed in technology, they would be empowered to take advantage of entrepreneurial opportunities embedded in IT. (NAN)
CAN/FLP/SOA
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Edited by Folorunso Poroye/Oluwole Sogunle