Google announced its partnership with CodePlus to mark Ireland’s first ever Computer Science Week.
Google Ireland has committed to providing the Trinity Foundation with €100,000 as part of its pledge to support the CodePlus programme, which was founded in Trinity College Dublin.
CodePlus was set up to address the gender gap in computer science and encourage more young women into IT careers. The scheme includes a series of intensive 20-hour, hands-on coding workshops for secondary school girls.
These workshops are delivered on university campuses, with the CodePlus programme having recently expanded to the University of Galway and the University of Limerick. To date, more than 10,000 students have taken part.
As well as the workshops, participants have access to industry webinars, site visits and career talks from ICT professionals, role models and mentors.
In addition to its new partner Google, CodePlus is supported by the Bank of America and Science Foundation Ireland.
Google announced its partnership with the programme to mark Ireland’s first ever Computer Science Week running from 8 to 15 October.
“The CodePlus programme is an excellent way for young women to learn about computer science, coding and opportunities in the tech space at a point in their lives when they make decisions that can often impact their future career choices,” said Google Ireland’s head of engineering Jessica McCarthy.
McCarthy added that all the partners involved in CodePlus were encouraging teachers and students to sign up for the programme “so that more young women can avail of the opportunities a career in computer science provides, and so that computer science can benefit from having more women in the field”.
“We know that there are meaningful and rewarding career opportunities in this space but, sadly, we continue to see disproportionately lower numbers of women participating at both third-level and professional junctures,” she concluded.
More information on the CodePlus programme is available on its website.
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
