Dr Jo Twist, CEO of UK Interactive Entertainment about getting more women into coding and the gaming industry (Photo: IBTimes UK)
Dr Jo Twist, CEO of UK Interactive Entertainment talks about getting more women into coding and the gaming industry (Photo: IBTimes UK)

The UK gaming industry is growing and worth £3.3bn, but despite its scale only a small percentage of the personnel in the sector are women.

In a video interview with IBTimes UK, Dr Jo Twist, CEO of the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) says that more needs to be done to get girls into computer science and coding early, in order to provide a more balanced workforce.

According to the latest available statistics from UK's Department for Education from 2010 to 2011, in London only 382 students decided to take Computing/Computer Studies at A-level, out of a total of 98,000 A-levels taken.

UKIE has had success with promoting more computer science and concept design education in schools, after it issued a call-to-action plea to UK policymakers to help foster greater digital literacy, IT and Computer Science training to pupils and teachers.

Twist says that 540 schools around the UK have signed up to an initiative by Computing at School to increase Computer Science uptake and she hopes this will be rolled out nationwide over the next few years.

For the full video interview, check out IBTimes TV or the video at the top right-hand side of this page.

London