ENSURING SCIENCE DOESN’T BLIND GIRLS
ENCOURAGING girls to study traditional male subjects is at the heart of an education success story out of Ireland.
With the nation remaining a key location for foreign direct investment offering jobs in pharmaceuticals, aviation, ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and medical devices, universities are tackling the technology gender gap to foster young scientists and tech specialists with results being recognised globally.
Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth in County Kildare are among the universities awarded cash by the Government’s Higher Education Authority and tech giant Microsoft to offer scholarships to women from abroad and Ireland’s undeserved areas respectively so they can study science and tech.
Secondary school student Emma Brady, 15, envisaged a career as a primary school teacher or hairdresser but after sitting Maynooth University’s science Technology, Engineering and Maths Passport for Inclusion that teaches basic science skills, python coding programming language and problem solving, she is considering a degree in engineering.
“It’s important for women to get into the sciences because the technical industry is growing so fast and changing the world, girls are getting left out and shouldn’t be,” Emma said.
“Those jobs are better paid than teaching so why should the boys get all the money?”
Maynooth University’s associate professor in psychology Katriona O’Sullivan devised the termPassport for Inclusion course to reverse the gender balance for girls in secondary schools.
In the two years it has been running, 1250 girls have sat the course.