WISE are excited to be part of a brand-new research project investigating how to engage more girls in computing. We are partnering with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the Behavioural Insights Team, STEM Learning, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, alongside Apps for Good, to work on ‘Gender Balance in Computing’.

Research by the University of Roehampton and the Royal Society recently found that only 20% of computing candidates for GCSE and 10% for A level Computer Science were girls. ‘Gender Balance in Computing’ will develop and roll out multiple projects with the aim of increasing the number of girls choosing to study computing subjects at GCSE and A Level. These projects will run from 2019-2022 across Key Stages 1-4 – involving over 15,000 students and 550 schools in England.

As part of this, we are thrilled to be trialling our outreach resource ‘My Skills My Life’ with Primary schools. The resource will be used schools in England during 2021 and will be delivering a specific variant of My Skills My Life, focused on computing, to Year 5 students. The consortium has identified some of the possible reasons why a large percentage of girls don’t choose computing, and this includes feeling like they don’t belong, and that computing is not relevant to them. My Skills My Life challenges these stereotypes by showing girls inspirational women working in industry with who they may have traits in common with.

We would like to recruit 300 female role models working within Technology/Computing to register as role models and get involved with sessions across England from September 2021. This will involve joining a session within a primary school remotely – talking about your computing, your role and answering any questions the pupils may have.

If you’d like to get involved, please register your interest here.

Further Ways to Get Involved

• Complete a WISE My Skills My Life role model account and profile (approximately 20 minutes).
• Complete the ‘My Skills My Life’ online training (approximately 40 minutes).
• Attend at a WISE-led interactive training session (1 hour). Details for this will be shared upon registering your involvement in the project.

If you have any questions about the project, please email info@wisecampaign.org.uk FAO the Development Team.