Why settle for anything other than the intellectual elite (= women) for IT education?

The number of applicants to IT programs is increasing, reports Computer Sweden. Can we therefore settle down and reduce efforts to attract young people to IT education? Hardly.

We in the IT industry claim to deliver products and services that are at the cutting edge of technology. Not only that, we are driven to do so in order to compete globally. This requires top-level skills. And this, in turn, requires that the education and training that delivers this competence attracts the brightest minds.

Applications to IT courses are increasing, but from what level? Are IT programs attracting the brightest students? A look at the Swedish Council for Higher Education's statistics shows that IT programs still lag behind those with the largest number of applicants. At the top are the medical program at Karolinska, the law program at Stockholm University and the Stockholm School of Economics, with 2248, 2099 and 2084 first choice applicants respectively. First in 43rd place is the Computer and Systems Science program at Stockholm University with 560 first-time applicants, while what can probably be considered the kingpin among computer science programs, KTH's computer engineering program, is in 59th place with 454 first-time applicants.

I see no reason whatsoever why IT degrees should not be among the most attractive. IT jobs are among the most stimulating, challenging and well-paid to be found. The industry still has a lot of work to do to convince the most talented students now graduating of this.

One key is girls, who have long had the highest grades when they leave secondary school. Students with good grades go to the programs where high grades are required, and IT programs do not (yet). Again, the statistics speak for themselves: the above-mentioned law and medical programs are at the top with 1,267 and 1,205 female first-choice applicants respectively, while KTH's computer engineering program attracted 42 female first-choice applicants - 638th among all the country's university programs. So few that it was not even possible to write in the chart below.

So: still a lot to do, especially to attract girls. This needs to start early, which leads to my recommendation to IT companies to get involved in our Next Up competition for eighth graders, which is now scaling up to five locations around the country.