A Liverpool firm has teamed up with PlayStation to launch an eight-week programme to help give teenage girls key tech and interpersonal skills while raising the profile of STEM subjects and careers in the industry.
InnovateHer announced its Digital Bootcamp programme that will be aimed at girls aged between 12 and 16, with the after school programme set to teach them skills, build confidence, and highlight local opportunities within the tech and digital industries.
PlayStation previously worked with InnovateHer’s sister brand Liverpool Girl Geeks to deliver a similar educational programme in Liverpool in 2016.
The programme saw 20 girls take part in technology themed workshops across six weeks, and included an invitation to PlayStation’s Wavertree offices to meet technical staff and learn more about how games are developed and tested.
Now, InnovateHer is working with PlayStation again to develop a scalable eight-week Digital Bootcamp programme in order to reach more girls in new locations across the UK.
Chelsea Slater, co-founder of Liverpool firm InnovateHer said: “We’re proud to be working with PlayStation again on our tech programme for girls.
"The issues we see around the gender pay gap and low numbers of women in the tech community are the culmination of the seeds that get sown early in young women’s academic careers.
"Our mission is to get girls ready for the tech industry, and to get the industry ready for girls, and a huge part of this is challenging the misconception that girls 'can’t do' STEM subjects like Computer Science, equally that the STEM industry doesn’t cater for women."
According to InnovateHer, girls make up only 20% of computer science entries at GCSE, and just 10% at A-level, with nine times more boys that girls gaining an A level in Computer Science this year.
InnovateHer, whose mission is “to get girls ready for the tech industry, and the industry ready for girls”, recently pledged to tackle these figures by committing to work with schools to reach over 1,000 girls by 2020.
InnovateHer said working with PlayStation has allowed the firm to extend the programme further afield, into locations like Guildford and London.
Programmes will start in selected schools during January 2020, and graduates of the programme will have a chance to showcase their work at a conference next year in Brighton.
Ms Slater added: "It’s important for us that our programme reaches girls not just locally, but nationally, too, and that it aims to show young women just what opportunities are open to them. Thanks to PlayStation’s support and recognition, we are able to do just that.”
