Hakom - Croatian Post and Electronic Communications Agency

Zagreb, 28 April 2016 – The International Girls in ICT day was marked today in Zagreb and the main even – the round table entitled "I look good in digital – the importance of education from the earliest age" was organized by the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM) with this year's project partners, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb and companies Ericsson Nikola Tesla (ENT) and IBM Croatia. After the welcoming speech given by the President of the Council of HAKOM, Mr. Dražen Lučić, the participants listened to Mrs. Višnja Ljubičić, the ombundsman for gender equality and Zrinka Makovac, a representative of the President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović and coordinator of the "eSkills for Jobs" initiative. The event gathering successful businesswomen from the Croatian ICT sector and representatives of the academic community focused on the importance of education for the promotion of this sector which should start from the earliest age in the educational system and as part of various extracurricular activities. The discussion particularly focused on the role of the industry in the promotion of the ICT sector among young people and on the guidelines that will help the society to encourage young people (girls) to choose a career in the ICT sector.

Ms. Željka Car (FER), Ms. Vedrana Miholić (CROZ) Ms. Katija Rak (IBM), Ms. Marija Boban (School of Law of the Faculty of Split) and Ms. Ana Sović Kržić (FER/ŠUZA) all participated in the workshop which included discussions about opportunities and possibilities offered by education in the ICT sector, about ways to encourage and promote ICT from the earliest age and about good and bad examples from practice.

During the week preceding the main event, HAKOM and its partners organized a series of educational workshops for girls in senior grades of elementary schools where they learned in a fun way, through games and hobbies, about the world of ICT and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).This included the "Smart Lumies" workshops where children learned about the laws of physics and colours and sounds by using interactive educational cubes. Another workshop that took place was the "Lego Education" workshop in Croatian which has been developed and used for 30 years in cooperation with teachers and educational institutions worldwide, as well as workshops entitled "Mathematics with Cryptography" and the ˝IBM Workshop". A visit to the company Ericsson Nikola Tesla, a regional leader in the ICT industry was also organized. Activities for marking the International Girls in ICT Day also included a competition on the topic of "My Ideal Robot" the winners of which were announced at today's main event.

As a reminder, the International Girls in ICT Day initiative was launched by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and it is implemented in more than 140 countries worldwide. Its purpose is to decrease the gap between women and men in the ICT sector and thus simultaneously solve the problem of insufficient number of ICT experts in the entire world. The project is implemented in the Republic of Croatia by HAKOM together with the above-mentioned project partners FER, ENT and IBM Croatian and project ambassadors - women from the academic community or in leadership positions in the ICT sector, Ms. Gordana Kovačević, Chairwoman of the Management Board of ENT, Ms. Vedrana Miholić, Director of Sales of CROZ, Ms. Tanja Pušelj Ostroški, Member of the Management Board of IN2 and Ms. Željka Car, associate professor at FER.
 

ABOUT HAKOM: HAKOM (www.hakom.hr) - Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries – ensures preconditions for a fair market competition, stable growth and environment for innovations in the electronic communications and postal services market. HAKOM protects users’ interests and the possibility of choice among various communications and postal services at affordable prices, defines sustainable competitive conditions for operators and service providers under fair conditions for return on investment, and provides support to economic growth, public services and the quality of life in the Republic of Croatia by using modern technologies. HAKOM’ strategic goals are: to promote regulation of the electronic communications and postal services market, to support growth of investments and innovations in the electronic communications and postal services market, to provide efficient use of limited resources, to accelerate the growth of broadband products and services, to provide affordable offers of communications and postal services, to provide protection and informing of users, to build an efficient and comprehensive information system, to define and implement efficient processes, and to acquire multi-disciplinary competencies in market regulation.