Engineers Week 2008 will be celebrated February 17 – 23, and is co-chaired by the Chinese Institute of Engineers (CIE)–USA and IBM Corporation. Feel free to forward this letter or contents to other interested parties.

Contents:
1. Today is Your Deadline to Join the Cyberchase
2. Women in IT in 2008 Global Marathon
3. Send Your Local News

1. Today is Your Deadline to Join the Cyberchase
Send email to info@eweek.org for March 19 dial-in information; we will send the Builder's Math Activity toolkit later.

2. Women in IT in 2008 Global Marathon
Inviting and supporting women in IT careers is an important part of the 2008 Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering. You can see more about the Marathon at www.eweek.org including written commentary, like the following from Viviane Reding, European Union Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

"As Europe's IT Commissioner, I however see that we can make a very important and powerful contribution to equality: by bringing more women into IT jobs. This something that the industry and politics can get done together.

Bringing more women into the IT industry will not only be good for equality. It will at the same time help innovation, growth and the competitiveness of Europe.

Let me give you some figures:

• Europe is having trouble keeping up with market demands for qualified ICT staff. It is expected that there will be a shortage of 300,000 qualified staff by 2010. Several ICT companies are repeatedly reporting a skills gap, meaning they cannot find the people with the right education and training needed for their companies to improve and grow.
• The percentage of women graduates in all subjects grew from 55% in 1998 to 58% in 2004. However, between 1998 and 2004, the share of female computer science graduates decreased on average by around 4%.
• Looking at engineering, even though the total number of graduates is rising and the share of female engineering graduates is growing, women still only accounted for 19% of the total number of graduates in this field in 2004.

We need to act and act soon!

For me there is one obvious solution: to solve the shortfall of ICT professionals, we need to bring in more women who are currently under-represented in this dynamic sector. We need to use this untapped potential!

First of all, we need to convince young women, pupils, students, to prepare for a job in the IT sector, and not to leave this entirely to their male colleagues. We need to show that IT jobs are not for geeky, unsociable persons, but that ICT is interesting, is mainstream, is part of everyone's daily life, and that ICT career is a choice for a creative person."

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3. Send Your Local News
The National Engineers Week Foundation would like to share news of your outreach activities, whether they occurred during February or are happening now and through the spring. Send your news to info@eweek.org or post directly on the Local Events Forum

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Founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, Engineers Week (February 18-24, 2007) is celebrated annually by thousands of engineers, engineering students, teachers, and leaders in government and business. In 1988, the National Engineers Week consortium expanded its scope and now includes more than 100 engineering, scientific, and education societies and major corporations dedicated to enhancing the public understanding of the engineering profession and to promoting pre-college interest in math, science, and engineering as a career option.

Previous issues of the EWEEK ENEWS available here.

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National Engineers Week Foundation
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