Just one in five computer science graduates in Ireland are women, an imbalance which education initiative in Galway and elsewhere aims to address.
NUI Galway is one of the higher education partners taking in the education outreach programme being rolled out nationwide Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software.
CodePlus aims to target 10,000 girls attending secondary schools throughout Ireland over the course of the next two years to
Lero’s Dr Cornelia Connolly of NUI Galway’s School of Education said the goal of CodePlus is to redress the imbalance in CS graduates coming out of Irish third-level colleges.
“When you look at the percentages of all undergraduate degrees in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) awarded to females over the last seven years it is stuck at just 18%, and a lowly 20% for CS courses.”
We need teachers and students to sign up for CodePlus. Young women are missing out on great careers in Computer Science and Computer Sceince needs more women designing for and with women; developing and leading the way,” Dr Connolly continued.
According to Clare McInerney, Education and Public Engagement Manager with Lero, research into the CodePlus initiative shows it positively impacts female secondary school students.
“The CodePlus programme is a powerful, non-formal outreach project encouraging adolescent girls to explore careers in Computer Science,” she said.
The under the SFI Discover Programme and will encourage, facilitate and provide opportunities to teenage female students to engage with Computer Science.
