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The influx of female ICT professionals is increasing year by year, but the number of women in ICT still lags behind men. The latest figures from pr-eDICT show that the sector is changing. Currently, 81.5% of ICT professionals are male. Given the significant shortages in the ICT industry, it is a shame that half of the Dutch population is not pursuing this profession. Fortunately, in recent years, there seems to be a change happening. In 2020, the growth in the number of female ICT professionals was 6.5%, while the growth for male ICT professionals was 1.7%.
“It is good news that the influx of female ICT professionals is increasing,” says Lotte de Bruijn, ambassador of the Human Capital Agenda ICT. “But in order to close the gender gap, the growth needs to accelerate even further in the coming years. This will lead to a more representative and inclusive sector and is crucial to address the urgent shortage of ICT talent."
Labour market opens up: differences between sectors and professions disappear
Digitalisation is putting pressure on all sectors. The demand for ICT specialists is growing, with an increasing need for ICT skills in almost all roles. In total, 542,000 people work as ICT professionals, which represents 6% of the 9 million people in employment in the Netherlands. Over 70% of ICT professionals work outside the traditional IT sector(s). As a result, differences in job characteristics and requirements between professions are decreasing. This makes the job market more dynamic, making it easier to transition to different professions in other sectors. Digitalisation presents opportunities, and women seem to be seizing these opportunities, which enhances diversity in the ICT job market.
Reskilling
The Human Capital Agenda ICT (HCA ICT), of which CA-ICT (the ICT labour market training fund) is a partner, is working on a scaling plan around regional initiatives for reskilling and upskilling towards ICT professionals. Several of these initiatives also focus specifically on making the ICT sector more inclusive. Through this plan, we aim to train and reskill an additional 36,000 people and involve a total of 12,000 companies through an investment of 80 million euros over four years.
pr-eDICT: up-to-date information on the labour market
The core objective of CA-ICT is to support regional initiatives with comprehensive labour market information through pr-eDICT, the expertise centre for digitalisation and ICT of CAICT, the ICT labour market training fund. Pr-eDICT provides information on the ICT job market in a broad sense, collecting and analysing data from CBS, DUO, Jobdigger, and LinkedIn. This includes data on education inflow and outflow, transition from education to the labour market, the ICT job market, and vacancies.
The figures from pr-EDICT are based on definitions and professions that align with the digitalising economy. Figures from UWV are based on the occupational classification (BRC) used by CBS for ICT professions. As a result, the number of ICT professionals in pr-eDICT is higher than the number of ICT professionals according to UWV.
Want to check the data yourself? Visit www.pr-edict.nl.
Want to learn more about pr-eDICT? Ask Jasper Veldman.