This week I’m at the Grace Hopper Celebration event. You can see my previous two blogs on this fantastic initiative here and here.
In spite of significant efforts from multiple initiatives the statistics are still bleak.
The numbers of school children and students entering the Computer Science pipeline is actually falling whereas other sciences – like Chemistry & Biology – are beginning to increase.
A hypothesis was shared giving 3 reasons why girls in particular don’t want in:-
- they think it’s boring
- they wouldn’t be any good at it
- they wouldn’t want to be seen dead with the people who study Computer Science…
Whether the above are misperceptions or not it’s vital that we get that generation inspired (regardless of gender).
But don’t panic! Key initiatives are in the pipeline both globally and locally.
For example “The Hour of Code” last year reached over 
128 Million – of which 48% were female. Now that’s more like it! This year it’s December 7 – 13th.
Who could you encourage to join in?
In the UK our own BBC has launched a great campaign called “Make it Digital”. A brilliant collection of interactive media, on-line and broadcast programming.
How easy would it be for you to share this with young people you know?
Cisco in the UK are going live with a national campaign to reach school children – The Cisco Little BIG Awards – getting them to think about “Connecting the unconnected”. We are working with STEMnet and our own employees and partners to make this happen – but volunteers are always welcome!
I hope you’re getting the hint that we all need to become agents for change. It won’t just magically happen.
What will do you to make a difference?
You can keep us with my adventures in the US this week via my twitter account!
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