Computing degree apprenticeships: An opportunity to address gender imbalance in the IT sector?

Abstract

This paper explores the potential for new workbased apprenticeship degrees to encourage more women into computing degrees and the IT sector. In the UK, women are currently under-represented on computing courses. Meanwhile the IT industry requires more computing graduates, in general, and specifically more highly skilled women to create appropriate products and systems. The UK has recently introduced apprenticeship computing degrees, where the apprentice is a work-based employee. In some models, apprentices spend 20% of their time on Higher Education studies and also gain credits through work-based learning; in others, apprentices spend blocks of time in Higher Education and the workplace. These degrees offer a new and innovative route to studying computing at university. Largely funded by employers, apprentices are salaried, and their fees are paid, paving the way for more people to study for a degree. The work context enables apprentices to keep their jobs (if relevant) or to move into IT roles and start a computing degree without necessarily having computing qualifications; the degrees have no upper age limit. Extending the work-based approach of US cooperative education and student work placement models, apprenticeship degrees have been introduced to increase skills levels through a close partnership between universities and employers. This is particularly important in IT, where the sector is expanding, and employers are looking for both good technical and personal skills. With this model, employers are collaboratively involved in the design of the degrees and apprentices graduate with extensive work experience. We posed the following research question: Are there differences in the paths into computing apprenticeship degrees between women and men? A survey was conducted with apprentices beginning a degree in Fall 2019: Cyber Security, Data Science, IT Management for Business, or Software Engineering/Development. Participants were asked about their routes into the apprenticeship and the IT sector. Apprentices at five universities in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland completed the survey, on paper or online (n=85; 23 female, 59 male).The results revealed a less severe gender imbalance than with comparative on-campus degrees (28% female), but this varied greatly across the subjects, from Data Science, where 55% of respondents identified as female and IT Management for Business (40% female), to Software Development (27% female) and Cyber Security (only 11% female). Apprentices were more likely to have started the degree at least a few years after leaving school and this was especially true for women. More female respondents had also been with their current employer for over five years. However, women were slightly more likely to have joined their employers in order to start the apprenticeship. This initial work identifies opportunities to recruit women onto computing degree apprenticeships, for example by targeting women who have started careers. It also highlights that there are challenges in recruiting women ...

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“…Previous studies have indicated that IT apprentices have some technical background (Taylor-Smith et al , 2019), however there is a variation in the level of technical skills apprentices have (Somerville et al , 2020). This raises the question of whether the requirement for specific technical skills steers away those with limited technical backgrounds, including women who are more likely to develop an interest in computing later than men (Smith et al , 2020b).…”

Irish apprenticeships in financial services: negotiating gender and navigating social justice

“…Non-traditional apprenticeships and gender Smith et al (2020) argued that computing degree apprenticeships can be used a lever to address gender imbalance in the IT sector in the UKa sector that to date has been maledominated. Crawford Lee and Moorwood (2019) propose that degree apprenticeship programmes offer employers a mechanism to address gender gaps and discrimination.…”

“…Smith et al. (2020) argued that computing degree apprenticeships can be used a lever to address gender imbalance in the IT sector in the UK – a sector that to date has been male-dominated.…”

Learning in Context: A First Look at a Graduate Apprenticeship

“…Finally, Smith et al also explore to what extent these new programs help to address the gender imbalance in computing. They conducted a survey at five UK institutions and found that the degree-level apprenticeships themselves may not directly help to address the gender imbalance, but make several suggestions to improve the gender imbalance going forward, such as by advertising apprenticeships directly to women, as well as more widely [31].…”