Founded by Avye Couloute when she was 10 years old in 2018, Girls Into Coding (GIC) has been on a mission to improve female representation in the tech industry, provide support for young women starting out on their tech journey and to eradicate the existing stereotypes regarding tech workers.
Diversity and nurturing talent pipelines have been frequent areas of discussion for DataIQ members and businesses in the wider data industry, but getting started in addressing these issues can feel daunting and confusing. That is why businesses need to partner with outreach programmes such as GIC to enhance their own business acumen, achieve their own diversity targets and become a beacon for other organisations to follow.
“When I was 10, back in 2018, I regularly ran robotics workshops for other children at community events and I kept noticing that most attendees at my workshops were boys, and on some occasions only boys attended,” said Couloute. “I realised there was a need to help more girls access these opportunities and I was determined to encourage more girls to give STEM a go. As a result, I decided to set up Girls Into Coding – a programme engaging girls with hands-on tech opportunities and empowering them to pursue further STEM activities, education, and hopefully careers.”
Why should businesses get involved?
There are near-continuous discussions from data businesses about an ever-shrinking skills pool and how difficult recruiting the correct skill sets can be – which is further exacerbated by the gender divide. By getting involved with GIC, businesses will be helping develop the future talent the industry so desperately needs, as well as cementing themselves as a force for positive demographic change in the industry.
“It is widely known that women and girls are under-represented in the tech sector,” said Couloute. “The main challenge is, ‘if you cannot see it, you cannot be it’ and the perception that tech and STEM, in general, is a ‘boy thing’.”
“Girls need to see and experience that tech is also for them; there are not enough opportunities for this to happen and sadly such opportunities usually come with a price attached,” Couloute added. “Undoubtedly this is a huge barrier for girls from disadvantaged backgrounds and those hardest hit by Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis. We need businesses to really get behind and support grassroots organisations like GIC so that we can continue creating free opportunities to engage girls with hands-on, meaningful, fun and challenging STEM-based workshops.”
Outreach programmes have been shown time and again to bring long-term success and interest to different fields, with many people taking part in such programmes eventually undertaking an apprenticeship. With such a skills shortage in the industry, and modern-day curriculums not promoting tech, data and analytics as much as needed, programmes such as GIC are an essential part of the future talent pipeline.
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