The digital industry could be the first sector which would employ as many women as men, Parliamentary Secretary for Digital Innovation Silvio Schembri said.

Mr Schembri was speaking at the launch of the Women4IT project, which seeks to employ 100 young women in the digital sector with training being offered by stakeholders.

The current ever-growing digital sector currently had significantly fewer women than men, Mr Schembri noted at the event in Valletta.

Women with disadvantaged backgrounds would be given the chance to work in the digital sector through an engagement strategy with stakeholders and employers, Mr Schembri added.

He encouraged other initiatives, such as teleworking and flexible working arrangements, which he said were extremely valuable to women with caring responsibilities.

The €346,000 project, which runs between September 2018 and August 2021, was presented for the first time to the public last year.

Malta partnered up with several other countries, including Norway, to provide innovative solutions to increase the number of girls and young women in the digital economy in seven European countries, Parliamentary Secretary for EU funds Aaron Farrugia said.

The initiative brings together 10 partners from nine European countries to teach digital competencies to young women "at risk of exclusion from the labour market".

It will include the development of a new online employability profiling tool and awareness-raising campaigns.

In 2017, the gender employment gap amounted to 11.6 percentage points for the EU, with a 76.9% employment rate for men and 65.3% rate for women.