The tech giant is providing support to the Lero software research centre as it rolls out this year’s CodePlus programme for teenage girls.
Huawei Ireland has joined the CodePlus programme, which is working to encourage young women and girls to get into the technology industry.
CodePlus’s 2021 programme was launched earlier this year by Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) software research centre, in collaboration with a number of third-level colleges around the country.
The programme was initially launched in 2015 at Trinity College Dublin, but is being rolled out further by Lero in partnership with Trinity, NUI Galway and University of Limerick over the next two years.
According to Dr Clare McInerney, Lero’s education and public engagement manager, “The CodePlus experience will enable students to make better-informed choices about future studies or involvement in computer science, software and technology.”
Lero, which is based at University of Limerick, is spearheading the CodePlus programme’s expansion. This year’s programme will involve a series of 20-hour coding workshops delivered over four days to schools in the Munster region. The programme expects to engage with between 5,000 and 5,500 school girls annually over the next two years.
As well as its involvement in the CodePlus programme, Huawei has supported a number of similar education initiatives in Ireland aimed at reducing the gender gap when it comes to ICT careers.
In 2020, the tech company launched the Tech4her scholarship programme in partnership with TU Dublin and University College Dublin, which supports female students studying STEM subjects at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The programme also enables students to engage in a mentoring programme with representatives from Huawei.
Rujing Guo, communications manager at Huawei Ireland, said: “While we have been promoting a more gender-balanced STEM education among third-level educational institutes, it is also of high importance to take a step further to encourage secondary school girls to get to know more about STEM education.”
As well as its partnership with Lero, Huawei Ireland works with other SFI centres including Connect, Insight and Adapt.
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