HBO-ICT Students of Hogeschool Utrecht teach girls from primary school to program On Saturday 21 May 2022, Hogeschool Utrecht and VHTO (www.vhto.nl, expertise center for gender diversity in science, technology, and IT), organized an Image Breakers Code Event for girls from class 6, 7, and 8. The girls were playfully introduced to programming. They started working with Scratch, designed a dance with unplugged programming and plotted a course with Ozobots, and danced with Robot Nao. Afterward, the radiant children received a certificate of participation and we concluded the day.
Why the code event? We know from several studies that female students have fewer opportunities to discover their interests in IT and build IT skills. That is very unfortunate because there are many job opportunities in IT and more and more professions are digitizing. During this event we broke through (gender) stereotyped visuals with a group of girls by introducing them to role models, our HBO-ICT students and we worked on confidence in their abilities by teaching them IT skills.
At every moment of choice, (profile choices, study choices, career choices) girls choose something other than Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics. As a result, only 18 percent of tech professionals are women. Based on various scientific studies, VHTO formulated six reasons why girls and women drop out. Read it via the link below.
https://www.vhto.nl/kennis/onderzoek/6-oorzaken-voor-weinig-meisjes-en-vrouwen-in-stem/
