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’. This project is due to begin early next year.

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 a 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.

As part of this, we are thrilled to be trialling our new outreach resource ‘My Skills My Life’ with schools who get involved with the project. We will be going into 90 schools over the school year 2020/2021 and will be delivering a specific variant of My Skills My Life, focused on computing. 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 are looking for female computing role models to feature on our ‘My Skills My Life’ digital platform and get involved with the trials! If you’re interested and would like more information, please email info@wisecampaign.org.uk.