There is no debate on the fact that the tech space is male dominated with little to no female representation across different world regions.
Come to Africa, and the male to female ratio representation within the tech space is even worst. This imbalance is largely attributed to the fact that girls do not take up Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education as much as boys do; something that leads to a small pipeline of female techies available to fill up STEM jobs and act as role models.
It is only in the last decade that the girl child has been allowed to seek formal education and become socially-accepted to become a working class woman. In the past, most African parents viewed girls as people that will be married off when they come of age, and a woman’s place is in the kitchen and attending to the needs of the children and her husband.
So naturally, the male to female representation ratio within the tech space became worse off than in other industrialized countries.
In the wake of the International Women’s Day, Andela Fellowship is running a 4-year program, where female techies will be taken through a paid professional software development program. The program is enlisting only women and will take them through coding classes that will turn them into programming gurus.
Calling all female developers!!! Andela Kenya is launching an all female class! Application… https://t.co/rc58Ow5zYM
— AkiraChix (@akirachix) March 9, 2016
This program will be Andela’s first all-female classes seeking to inspire the female techies to become world class software developers. Students will also have the opportunity to work around the world for six months.
“As an Andela Fellow, you are also eligible for continued training and employment with Andela for four years. After the four-year program, Andela Fellows can be expected to start technology companies, work directly with client companies as employees or continue to help train software engineers as Andela,” says Andela.
If you are a woman that loves to know how technology works and what solutions you could create using technology. Then this is your chance to take part in the Andela paid programming training.
Click here to apply. Application deadline is April 8, 2016.