CodePlus were delighted to host over 30 women from tech companies and universities for breakfast in the Science Gallery to talk about careers in Computer Science.
Science Foundation Ireland’s SmartFutures programme supports students by linking professionals to give talks about STEM in schools across Ireland.
Outreach from women in industry is particularly important in the issue of addressing gender imbalance in Computer Science. Role models and mentors can make a huge difference to attitudes and challenge a number of stereotypes held by girls. Some discussion included how to show that CS jobs are sociable, creative, involve much more than coding alone and should be open to everyone across gender, race and social background.
We are lucky to have such talent and enthusiasm from volunteers with great stories to tell from their lives as developers, engineers, testers, analysts managers and all the other cool jobs there are out there for computer scientists!
We were also proud to have former CodePlus students Aoife Dunne and Klaudia Obieglo from Coláiste Bríde come to talk about what the CodePlus programme and having role models in computing means to them;
“Codeplus gave us many opportunities. Some bigger than others but all equally important. We were able to meet new people from all around Dublin and make friends. We got to learn more about computers and how to make games. Through Codeplus we all got the opportunity to gain confidence and to develop our interests. Without these opportunities we would not have found out our strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes.”
– Klaudia, CodePlus Student
CodePlus still need the support of women to get out and spread the message that computing is there as a choice for everyone, especially for our brilliant girls. For more information on how to get involved as a CodePlus speaker or coding mentor see how to get in touch here!