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Lyn Picken explains how the Ö÷²¥´óÐã is trying to teach some of our younger audience why a career in technology can be creative, fun and rewarding.  

I love it when we open up our doors to bring audiences in to our buildings – it can be rewarding and fun to see people experience what happens behind the scenes and learn about how we do things.  There are loads of reasons why we do this and our events can take many shapes and forms – sometimes we’re trying to understand what audiences want from us or how we can do things differently, for example, and other times we might trying to help people understand more about the way our programmes are made.

This week, on 28th January, we’re trying to help some of our younger audience know more about the different jobs people do to keep our online content going!  Technology is hugely important at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã and we hope this event will help the next generation of IT experts understand more about what a technical career at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã could look like, and inspire them to choose IT related GCSE options at the end of this academic year.  

It’s called Technacool and we’ve invited 80 girls in Year 9 from schools near our London sites; they’ll take part in various workshops based on real jobs – like how to fix an online Radio 1 film when it doesn’t look like it should or deciding whether or not to launch a new app.  Some of the girls will be creating their own fantasy Strictly Come Dancing line up in a coding exercise and they’ll all be shown around New Broadcasting House on a Tech Tour.

Technology careers can be hard to picture, especially if it’s not something you have experience of, and they vary immensely.  It’s rarely just people sat in computer labs or staring into screens. By giving the girls a short taster of a few different available career paths, we’re hoping they’ll agree with us that a technical career can be creative, fun and rewarding.  There is still a gender imbalance in the IT industry and we’re hoping this will inspire some future female technologists.

Ö÷²¥´óÐã Future Media is the part of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã that looks after things like iPlayer, Red Button and Ö÷²¥´óÐã Online – basically, anything for our audiences who want to access and interact with Ö÷²¥´óÐã programmes and services through the internet.  Across the Ö÷²¥´óÐã, we aim to be an inclusive employer and we value diversity – therefore, addressing the gender imbalance in the IT industry is a priority for Ö÷²¥´óÐã Future Media.  We make the best products for our audiences when our staff reflect those audiences.

We’re really excited about the event and looking forward to meeting the girls and showing them what we do! 

Lyn Picken is Diversity & Networking Inclusion Manager, Ö÷²¥´óÐã Future Media