News: Mentors to help promote women in digital world
13 February 2017
A new project with the aim of tackling gender imbalance in Scotland's digital technology sector has been initiated by Skills Development Scotland (SDS).
The project has been created in response to a report by Skills Development Scotland and partners in the Digital Technology Skills Group which identified female tech role models and mentors as an important means of helping young girls imagine themselves having a future career in the sector.
Girl Geek Scotland, on behalf of SDS and partners, will deliver the project and is calling on schools, colleges, universities, tech employers and organisations working in the Scottish tech sector to complete their survey to help map current role model and mentoring initiatives. The nation-wide survey, open until Thursday 23 February, invites educators, organisations and employers to contribute to the development of a new framework to support mentoring and role models that will help encourage girls into a digital technology career.
There are two surveys, one for primary and secondary schools and one for organisations and institutions, and both can be found on the SDS website here.
The initiative aims to support school age girls across Scotland and is funded by the Scottish Government through the Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership. Once the mapping exercise has been completed, work will begin to promote initiatives to schools across the country with a directory of mentoring activities and best practice case studies gathered from within the industry.
