Google Ireland has announced a partnership with CodePlus, a programme that aims to help address the gender imbalance in third-level computer science. The announcement was made recently at Google’s EMEA HQ in Dublin. Founded in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) the CodePlus programme aims to support female students, helping them to make more informed decisions about further education courses in tech and ultimately to consider a career in computer science. This announcement sees a funding commitment by Google of €100,000 to the Trinity Foundation, as TCD serves as the lead institution for the project.
To date the CodePlus programme has reached over 10,000 students and last year, building on the success of the initiative, CodePlus was scaled to include University of Galway and the University of Limerick.
Jessica McCarthy, Head of Engineering at Google, said “We are delighted to announce our partnership with CodePlus. We know that there are meaningful and rewarding career opportunities in this space but sadly, we continue to see disproportionately lower numbers of women participating at both third level and professional junctures. “The CodePlus programme is an excellent way for young women to learn about computer science, coding and opportunities in the tech space at a point in their lives when they make decisions that can often impact their future career choices. We are encouraging teachers and students to sign up for the programme so that more young women can avail of the opportunities a career in computer science provides, and so that computer science can benefit from having more women in the field.”
Also supported by Science Foundation Ireland and Bank of America, the CodePlus programme includes a series of intensive 20-hour, hands-on coding workshops for female secondary school students delivered on university campuses in Ireland. Participating students also have access to industry webinars, site visits and career talks from ICT professionals, role models and mentors.
Linda Doyle, Provost and President, Trinity College Dublin, said “Programmes such as CodePlus have a huge role to play in addressing the gender gap that still exists in the ICT profession. The statistics tell us that not enough women consider ICT to be a viable career prospect. Research shows that CodePlus is effective at changing students’ impressions, particularly when it comes to considering a career in computer science or the IT profession. This announcement is a further endorsement of the excellent work being done by CodePlus and I want to congratulate everyone who has been involved in this programme. We are delighted to welcome our new partner Google as we continue to reach more and more of tomorrow’s female ICT professionals and engineers.”
CodePlus programme coordinators have invited any teachers, pupils and schools interested in the CodePlus programme visit codeplusireland.ie for more information.
