Datapac is collaborating with Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) to encourage girls and young women to pursue careers in IT through the CodePlus initiative. The news comes as a new Skillnet programme tackling diversity and inclusion has been announced.
Datapac’s female employees are giving their time to instill a love for the field in girls from a young age in an effort to narrow the ever-prevalent gender gap in IT and provide real-life examples of women working in the tech sector.
CodePlus works with TAP which, for 30 years, has nurtured talent and potential from under-represented groups. To date, over 10,000 girls have taken part in CodePlus workshops to develop their coding and technology design skills, and participated in CodePlus talks to gain insights from some of the finest minds in the sector today. While great improvements in access to higher education have been made nationwide, participation in STEM subjects in areas of disadvantage remains a concern, particularly among female students, and CodePlus aims to address this.
Datapac recently launched its Community Contribution Initiative which provides employees with an additional three days of paid leave per year to engage in volunteering activities with organisations of their choice. The company will give over 500 days back to the community as part of the programme.
Luciana Fragoso, software developer, Datapac, said: “Providing ready access to role models is important when encouraging female students to consider further study and careers in technology. In order to address the gender imbalance, it’s crucial to engage with girls from a young age and increase the level of practical IT skills through a more gender-inclusive approach.
“It’s great to have partners like Datapac working with us. Many of our students don’t have obvious female ‘techy’ role models in their lives,” said Niamh Ellis, Trinity Access Programmes. “Helping them to understand what it’s like to study computer science, and to see the wide range of career opportunities in the IT industry, is a key aim of the CodePlus programme. Hearing about the career path and day-to-day experience of women in IT helps make the whole thing real, and a bit more achievable, for the students.”
Skills gap
Meanwhile, the recently launched Skillnet initiative aims to address the diversity and inclusion skills gap among senior managers. The programme is designed to equip senior managers with the knowledge and skills required to create more inclusive and diverse workplaces.
Carlow Kilkenny Skillnet, Waterford Chamber Skillnet and Cork Chamber Skillnet, with support from Skillnet Ireland celebrated the first cohort of companies (22 businesses) to complete a new programme developed in association with the Irish Centre for Diversity (ICD).
This programme was designed by the three Skillnet Business Networks in collaboration with industry across the South-East and South-West regions. It follows research conducted by the Skillnet Networks which identified a skills and knowledge gap within SMEs in managing diversity and inclusion within their workforce.
The programme enables businesses to evaluate, develop, and measure their organisations’ efforts in diversity and inclusion using the ICD Investors in Diversity framework. The programme upskills senior managers within SMEs and assists them in creating policies and procedures that prioritise diversity and inclusion as a fundamental company value.
“The challenge for SME’s is to put aside time to dedicate to learning about diversity and inclusion and then, when educated, to build the strategies into their companies,” said Ashling Ward, network manager at Carlow Kilkenny Chamber Skillnet. “The impact as we see it is that companies based in our region will be more informed, educated and involved in the diversity and inclusion conversation at all levels in their organisation from recruitment stages through to training and development of staff at all levels. We feel this is a strong business strategy to sustain companies and develop talent agenda into the future.”
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