REA Group and Zoopla Backing Women in Tech Initiatives

Both leading Australian portal operator REA Group and British property portal Zoopla have today announced measures to back women in tech roles.

REA Group today announced that it is expanding its Springboard to Tech initiative which this year will see eight female candidates given the chance to learn on the job for 12 months before being offered full-time employment at the company in a tech-focussed role.

The program is in its fourth year and offers aspiring female coders the chance to learn and be mentored within one of Australia's leading digital companies without needing any prior experience in the sector.

REA Group Chief Technology Officer, Chris Venter said as a leading digital company, REA has an obligation to find new and innovative ways to bring talent into the tech workforce:

“Australia needs to prioritise building a workforce that helps us plug the digital skills gap and meets the requirements of a modern digital economy. There are six different initiatives in REA’s entry to tech programs and Springboard to Tech is one of the most pivotal,”

“This program has genuinely shifted the dial on gender representation in REA’s tech workforce, with 20% female representation in 2017 to almost 30% now, and we absolutely want to get to 50% women in tech at REA."

“Our Springboarders vary from women returning to the sector, women who have completed a short course and those who are completely fresh to tech. We’re looking for people with the right mindset and attitude, and those who are curious and love to learn.”

Another property portal advocating for women in technology roles in the property marketing sector is Britsh portal firm Zoopla which is sponsoring the Women of Silicon Roundabout conference on the 1st and 2nd of November.

The event is designed to be an empowering, inspirational gathering of women leading the way in technology and this year will feature three Zoopla employees speaking about how their journeys in the male-dominated Engineering sector.

Many big tech companies around the world are starting to take gender diversity very seriously, especially in their engineering departments. According to research by Gartner, in 2018 only 31% of all IT jobs were occupied by women and a 2020 study of GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft) found that the percentages of female tech employees were between 27% and 42%.