Bringing more women into the Open Source industry is something that the LPI and Future Cert is committed to. We’ve blogged on the topic before, but here are some of the things we do to support women in IT, and women who want to gain LPI qualifications.
- Talking about it. Simply talking about the issue is important, whether that be to people we meet, via social media (which we do a great deal of), or on our website. The more we talk and share the issue, the more it will be heard.
- Writing about it. We also write about it, on our blog. We’re planning a Women in IT month in January, writing about real women in IT and sharing stories. We recently posted this guest blog article by Andrea Goulet, who is an advocate for women in tech, which discusses how tech businesses can attract more female employees.
- We are open and inclusive. At Future Cert our team of staff and consultants are male and female (in fact the person writing this post right now is a woman). It’s important to work and collaborate with both genders to give a rounded view, even if it’s a view of an industry that is still male-dominated.
- Our courses are easy to access and can be studied for from home. We have a range of LPI partners who offer the relevant training. Some of these training bodies can offer distance learning, or short 1-week courses. For women with childcare commitments this is often a good option and enables them to learn and gain Certification whilst working flexibly.
- LPI Certification is offered at a variety of levels. You don’t need to have lots of previous qualifications to undertake learning and gain qualifications in Linux.
- We share the career benefits of Linux qualifications. We feel it’s important to show the variety of jobs and careers you can enjoy in the Open Source industry. If we are to encourage women into the tech industry, we need to show how diverse and rewarding it is.
- We’ve made a commitment to improving on the number of women taking LPI Certification over the next 25 years in our mission statement. You can read it here – we’re setting ourselves big goals for the next few decades, which we hope will benefit the industry.
If you are a woman working or training in an area of IT, and you’d like to share your story or thoughts on the issue, then we’d like to hear from you. Email [email protected]