Girls Code it Better - Italy
The Italian initiative Girls Code It Better, was born out of the commitment of the Officina Futuro Fondazione W-Group Foundation, with the aim of getting more girls to consider going into ICT and STEM careers.
Girls Code it Better addresses an identified gender gap in digital skills: according to the Italian Education and Training Monitor report for 2020, boys in Italy are twice as likely as girls to expect to work in science or engineering when they are 30. More than ever, digital technologies play a key role when it comes to learning, bringing ideas to life, and require digital skills to develop other competences, like teamwork, critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills.
Aims and objectives
The initiative Girls Code It Better, is completely free and open to everyone. Its focus is on girls in secondary education and aims to boost their interest towards digital and innovation related topics, and encourage them to choose educational paths which have always been mistakenly considered more suited to boys.
Girls Code It Better challenges and tackles gender disparities and stereotypes, through a course delivered during extracurricular afternoon classes, that takes between 35 and 45 hours in total. The programme involves 20 girls, trained by a teacher with ICT knowledge, and a coach with technical skills. Participants are free to pick a topic they would like to work on, and bring it to life by designing a project in one of the following tech areas:
- Electronic cards and automation
- 3D design, modelling, and printing
- Web design and web development
- Mobile application development, coding and gaming
- Virtual and augmented reality
- Video creation and development of audio-visual content
Why is this a good practice?
Girls Code It Better opens up a possibility to girls in secondary education to explore digital and entrepreneurship paths through extra-curricular courses, based on engaging and challenging training methods that guide them towards careers in ICT and STEM.
With 522 clubs established across 223 secondary schools and over 10,000 girls participating from 17 Italian regions, Girls Code It Better demonstrates its scalability and effectiveness in engaging girls and nurturing their interest in ICT and STEM careers.
Girls Code It Better scores high in sustainability: since the start of the initiative, a wide range of private and public partners have supported its activities, contributing to the overall training value of the initiative and its importance in terms of guiding young female students towards innovative training paths.
Girls code It Better was the winner of the European Digital Skills Awards in the Women in ICT category
