Ask a 10-year old girl what she wants to be when she grows up. “Scientist” is likely to rank highly. But ask the same girl the same question just a few years later and that initial interest in a scientific career is likely to have waned. Despite enjoying science and technology as academic subjects, the number of girls and young women who follow their early ambitions to carve out careers as scientists, engineers or inventors remains limited. As we mark International Girls in ICT Day 2016, we are calling for greater efforts to close the gap between aspiration and achievement, for young women around the world.
We’re also committing our resources to supporting European Girls and Young Women to #MakeWhatsNext through a series of 50 trainings and mentoring sessions across 27 countries in Europe this Spring. Over 7,300 girls and young women are accessing these digital skills workshops to help prepare and engage them in the digital economy, to become creators not just consumers of tech, to learn computational thinking and problem-solving skills. The objective is to help close the gender gap in the field of computer science and to introduce the potential pioneers of tomorrow to women already doing great things in tech today.
Read the full story on Euractiv.