Riding a wave of new job growth

Ahead of International Women’s Day, Amy Shakespeare says we can trace the shortage of women in STEM careers back to schools and colleges

THE Wave augmented virtual experiences project is a £750,000 government-funded investment in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly’s rural museums and their local economies. #The Coastal Communities Fund have financed the project, run by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, Cornwall Museums Partnership, and Falmouth University.

The project will create immersive experiences at five museums in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly: Telegraph Museum Porthcurno, The Castle Heritage Centre in Bude, St Agnes Museum, Isles of Scilly Museum, and the Old Guildhall Museum and Gaol in Looe.

Virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality are all helping us to bring history to life and tell the stories of our unique and rich heritage in new and exciting ways.

Heading up the project are myself as wAVE project manager, Emmie Kell who is chief executive of Cornwall Museums Partnership, and Professor Tanya Krzywinska from the UK-leading Falmouth Games Academy.

We’ve also recently welcomed Ellie Smith onto the wAVE team, as digital project administrator apprentice. In a female-dominated environment such as this, it seems unremarkable to me that four women are running this innovative project.

Being asked to write an article for International Women’s Day – which is tomorrow – about the work we are leading on as women in this field seemed odd, when all I really want to do is talk about the brilliant things the project is achieving.

However, I am constantly shocked by the unignorable stats around women in tech, museums, and leadership positions. According to the organisation Women in Technology, only one in six tech specialists in the UK are women. Just 14% of people working in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) overall are female. And a previous survey of 50 museums nationally found that 90% of chairs were male.

Why is this? Well, in Cornwall we can partly trace it back to what is happening in our schools and colleges. It is not compulsory for students to take information and communications technology (ICT) at GCSE at every school. Of those that do choose to take the subject, less than 10% of them are girls. And on the Isles of Scilly, 0% of them are girls.

There are those working to tackle this, such as the recently founded TECgirls who seek to engage girls as young as six with technology, engineering, and creative activities and clubs around Cornwall.

The fact is that many young people, and those that support them to make career decisions, are unaware of the breadth of roles available within the sector. The creative industries are the fastest growing part of the UK economy – growing at more than five times the rate of the UK economy as a whole. They contribute £111.7billion GVA to the UK economy, which is greater than the automotive, aerospace, life sciences, and oil and gas industries combined.

Jobs in the creative industries are growing at three times the UK average, and employ over 2 million people in the UK – with that set to rise to three million by 2030. My job didn’t exist a couple of years ago, and the creative sector continues to advance so quickly that this is likely to be the case for many roles coming up within the next few years.

The creative industries are an exciting and varied sector to work in, and the wAVE project is just one example of this. My hope is that some of these facts start to filter out and inspire young people, and those supporting them, to consider a career in the sector. Cornwall has a flourishing creative economy with an aspirational landscape that provides fertile ground for developing a successful career.

If you want to see what we’ve been working on, and where you will be able to find your nearest immersive experience, follow @ coastaltimetripping on Instagram. Wouldn’t it be great if they could not only communicate the stories of our heritage in innovative ways, but also inspire a career in technology or museums?

Monday: Sophie Price on why some buidlings are so important to mainting healthy communities