In observance of the International Girls in ICT Day in Papua New Guinea (PNG), NICTA again celebrated this Day on Thursday, 23rd April 2015.
We organized open day events where leading ICT firms of PNG were engaged and opened their doors to female students of certain schools to visit and tour
their premises. The objective was to expose these school girls to the inner workings of an ICT firm in the hope that they are inspired enough to choose
ICT as a career path.
PNG has 22 provinces grouped into 4 regions which are Papuan region, Highlands region, Momase region and New Guinea Islands region. Considering this,
we held the open day events in 4 main cities and towns, one for each region, including Port Moresby the capital city. The table below depicts the final
outcome of our open day events.
1.
PORT MORESBY, CAPITAL CITY, PAPUAN REGION:
FIRM VISITED:
|
VISITING SCHOOL:
|
No. of Female Students of each School that participated:
|
1.1 Bmobile Vodafone (PNG) Limited – Mobile Company.
|
Port Moresby international School
|
17 girls plus 2 female teachers (IT) & 1 NICTA female staff
|
1.2 Digicel (PNG) Limited – Mobile Company.
|
Port Moresby National High School
|
16 girls plus 2 female teachers (IT) & 2 NICTA female staff
|
1.3 EMTV (Media Niugini) Limited – Television Company.
|
Caritas Secondary & Technical School (Girls School)
|
18 girls plus 1 female teacher (IT) & 2 NICTA female staff
|
1.4 National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) – Radio/TV Government Entity.
|
Gordons Secondary School
|
20 girls plus 1 female teacher (Deputy Principal – Admin) & 2 NICTA female staff
|
2.
MT. HAGEN, WESTERN HIGHLANDS PROVINCE, HIGHLANDS REGION:
FIRM VISITED:
|
VISITING SCHOOL:
|
No. of Female Students of each School that participated:
|
2.1 Telikom (PNG), Mt. Hagen Office – Telecoms Government Entity.
2.2 National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Mt. Hagen Office
|
Hagen Park Secondary School & Mt. Hagen Secondary School
|
40 girls plus 6 teachers & 1 NICTA female staff
|
Note: the 2 schools mentioned above visited the 2 host organizations back-to-back.
3.
LAE, MOROBE PROVINCE, MOMASE REGION:
FIRM VISITED:
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VISITING SCHOOL:
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No. of Female Students of each School that participated:
|
3.1 National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Lae office
|
Bumayong Secondary School
|
21 girls plus 4 teachers (3 females & 1 male-head of IT) & 1 NICTA female staff
|
3.2 Digicel (PNG) Limited, Lae Office
|
Bugandi Secondary School
|
14 girls plus 1 female teacher & 1 NICTA female staff
|
4.
KOKOPO, EAST NEW BRITAIN PROVINCE, NGI REGION:
FIRM VISITED:
|
VISITING SCHOOL:
|
No. of Female Students of each School that participated:
|
4.1 Telikom (PNG), Kokopo Office.
4.2 PNG Power Limited, Kokopo office – Power Government Entity.
4.3 Digicel (PNG) Limited, Kokopo office.
|
Kokopo Secondary School & OLSH Vunapope Secondary School
|
19 girls plus 1 #GirlsInICTechWeek Program coordinator & 2 NICTA staff
|
Note
: the 2 schools mentioned above visited the 3 host organizations back-to-back. Further, the open day event in Kokopo was held alongside with the
GirlsInICTechWeek Program on 17th April 2015.NICTA was the major sponsor of this TechWeek Program.
The open day events were a great success and rewarding too. The visiting teams and host firms together commented great satisfaction for participating.
The girls found the tours to be very informative and eye-opening where they gained insights into technical aspects of TV broadcasting, Radio
broadcasting, telecom and mobile service provision; but most of all, they found it very inspirational! The tours began with short talks by female staff
of the host organizations. These women hold leading ICT roles in the firm and they inspired and impressed the girls to pursue studies and careers in
ICT. The accompanying teachers were also motivated to get more girls in their respective schools to be aware of ICT careers and opportunities. Finally,
the girls were given a GICTD’15 polo t-shirt each as memorabilia for the day and to keep promoting the day.
