We had the privilege of holding a workshop at Ahead Partnership and Millennium Point's recent #GirlTechWM event, the purpose of which was to introduce 12-14 year old girls not only to female role models working in the tech industry, but to the possibility of a career in it, too.
Ahead Partnership are a social enterprise that aim to improve the pipeline and diversity of talent in the technology sector. We work with Ahead to overcome social inequalities and ultimately instigate positive social change through volunteering programmes with schools and providing work experience placements. Here at Intercity We Enjoy What We Do and we love tech and we want to help create opportunity for all young people, including under-represented groups, to have the chance to discover their love of it, too.
We're pleased to learn that over the course of the GirlTechWM event--which involved interactive workshops, challenges, and key note speakers--the girls' interest in a career in the digital industry increased by 17%! It was also an insightful event for the students, with 95% understanding the sets of skills required to work in the digital and tech industries after the event as opposed to only 76% beforehand.
One Year 8 student highlighted the importance of events like GirlTechWM in saying,
"It was really interesting, I learnt that jobs in digital are for women as well as men."
It's important to us to remove gender stereotypes around roles in tech, and events like this are integral in accomplishing that.
We are a key sponsor of Ahead Partnerships Growing Talent Digital Programme, where we work in connection with other businesses to make the tech industry accessible to under-represented groups and inspire students to develop skills for digital and tech roles, and help to present them with clear guides and opportunities into the industry. It's full STEM ahead with Ahead Partnership!