BT apprenticeships "not just for blokes"

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What will it take to convince women to join the ranks of IT engineers? According to BT, it will take a £200,000 campaign of brochures, adverts and apprenticeship schemes.

The telecoms firm announced plans, which coincided with International Women's Day, to increase the number of women in engineering roles with an apprentice attraction campaign touting the benefits of being an engineer - a job they say is "not just for blokes".

"BT is committed to improving the percentage of female apprentices," said Dave Walsh, head of BT Apprenticeships. "We have a target of employing 25 per cent women in our new intake. At the moment, of the 6,000 young people interested in the apprenticeships, only eight per cent are women."

A highly competitive program, 6,000 people already apply for the 600 apprenticeship roles on offer, most of which are with local network business Openreach.

According to European Commission statistics, the number of women graduating from computer programs in the European Unionfell from 25 per cent in 1998 to 22 per cent in 2006. And, two-thirds of telecommunications companies have no women on their boards of directors.

A study last year said that women held just 16 per cent of jobs in the IT sector, suggesting government and employers were failing in their bid to balance the workforce.

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