NZTech has joined forces with Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) to create the Shadow IT programme, designed to give female school students a taste of a tech career.

The students can shadow a woman in IT for the day on 27 August and get insight into workplaces that might employ them and find out about different career choices in tech.

The programme also reinforces the need to achieve academically to succeed professionally and create a more qualified workforce, says NZTech.

“We want more young female school leavers to pursue a career in IT,” says CEO Candace Kinser.” By spending a day in the life of an IT professional, young women will see firsthand how interesting and diverse the career options are.”

MIT industry and community engagement manager Edwina Mistry says there’s been a strong response from employers. Among those signed up are Vend, Datacom, Vodafone, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Air New Zealand and Orion Health.

The IT professionals will represent a cross section of roles, says Mistry, including developers, engineers, middle managers, CIOs and project managers.

She expects between 75 and 100 professionals will sign up to be matched with students according to their area of interest.