DMACC program aims to increase the number of women in technology

Oct. 01--Women interested in pursuing a career as an application developer now have a new avenue to follow. Des Moines Area Community College recently partnered with a group of central Iowa employers to develop a certificate program that focuses on achieving gender diversity in the information technology profession.

The Diversity in Application Development program was launched in early September and currently includes 14 women who work for area businesses that often cover the cost of tuition for their employees. Those companies include Workiva, Nationwide Insurance, Principal Financial Group, Farm Bureau Financial Services, GuideOne Insurance, Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance, Discovery Learning and Grinnell Mutual.

Michael Hoffman, executive director of continuing education at DMACC, said the women taking part in the first class were chosen by their companies because of their potential for success and growth within the business.

"By starting with incumbent workers already employed, they can find candidates they think would be the best fit for this and help skill them up and hopefully move them up within their companies," Hoffman said.

The program is 30-weeks long with eight hours of course work per week. That includes four hours of online work and four hours in the classroom each Friday afternoon at DMACC's West Campus. Students earn a Java Application Developer Certificate upon completion of the program.

The course was designed during meetings between the companies and DMACC. Those meetings were held to find out what the companies believed were among the biggest issues facing the industry and their information technology departments, according to Hoffman.

"They discussed what were some of their concerns or issues within their companies and a lot of them mentioned that they were lacking females within their IT department and they wanted to make sure they could recruit more females into IT to help with their diversity aspects as far as their companies were concerned," Hoffman said.

A study published by the National Center for Women and Information Technology shows that women currently hold about 26 percent of professional computing positions.

Hoffman said he believes that has been a national issue for some time, however lately he has seen a larger push to encourage women to join Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, fields.

Kelli Kleindorfer, the instructor for the DIAD program, said the lack of diversity in the tech industry may be a result of perception.

"In general, IT has been viewed as a very male dominated industry and we're now seeing, as IT is infiltrating our lives, that we need to bring in all the players at the table, both men and women," she said.

Kleindorfer said she hopes the DIAD program will help to encourage that shift in perception.

"We're hoping that they'll view DMACC as the primary place to go to gain education of the topics and to gain the skills that they need," Kleindorfer said.

Those skills will help women gain a more prominent position within the tech world, but it could also help the industry grow as a whole.

"The employers understand that if they have a diverse environment, they are going to get better products, they're going to get better results, than a room full of people who all think the same," Kleindorfer said.

Eileen Witt, vice president of administration at Workiva, a company that sponsors a student in the program, said her company is one that values the need for a diverse staff.

"It's not just the differences between genders, it's diversity as a whole. That's why Workiva has started a diversity and inclusion committee and we've come up with our diversity statement and we're doing a lot of different programs to encourage diversity within our organizations," Witt said.

According to Witt, she believes the DIAD program is a great place to start for women who want to get a start in the industry.

"It's really to help women get their feet wet in technology," Witt said.

Hoffman said he believes the program will continue to provide new opportunities in the future for women who are looking for a way to succeed in the tech industry.

"Application development may continue to be one of the focuses, but I believe there will be other opportunities," Hoffman said. "We already have companies asking when the next application development program will be."

Future programs may include education in areas such as network security or another area where companies have stated a high demand for that particular skill set.

Hoffman said he believes the students who take part in these programs will inspire other women to become application developers.

"I think these women will be used as role models within their companies to show the advancement opportunities they have within their companies, specifically in application development," Hoffman said.

Students interested in application development or companies interested in customized training for employees can contact DMACC's continuing education department at 515-256-4912.

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