GE Software will partner with a US based non-profit organisation -- Girls Who Code -- to host a summer immersion programme at its headquarters in the greater Silicon Valley area.
The seven-week course engages 20 local high school junior and senior girls in tech disciplines from mobile app development to robotics and web design.
The GE curriculum includes workshops on design thinking and user experience, seminars on security, robotics, data visualisation, data science and a STEM panel featuring GE’s leading women in technology.
The girls will make a trip to the University of San Francisco for an introduction to the school’s computer science programme, tour of the facilities and opportunity to audit a class. The programme culminates in the development of a product, which the girls present to their peers and GE Software technology experts.
“At GE, we consider diversity a competitive advantage and foundational to our success. I firmly believe organisations like Girls Who Code are essential to reversing the chasm between the skills on graduates’ resumes and the proficiencies necessary for making crucial advances in the convergence of big iron, software, analytics and data,” said Bill Ruh, vice president of GE Software in a press statement. “Our partnership with Girls Who Code aligns with our goal to attract and support women working in the STEM field – with women holding an ever increasing number of technical roles at GE Software.”
Currently, women make up the majority of the labour force in the US but hold only 25 per cent of the jobs in computing and technical fields. By 2020, there will be 1.4 million jobs available in related fields, but women educated in the US are only on pace to filling 3 per cent of these positions.