Grade VI students included in new training program

Over a hundred Grade VI students from public schools nationwide will be receiving specialized training, and mentorship from the Philippines’ top women scientists, technology and innovation drivers, and industry captains.

Launched this month, “#STEMPower Our Girls” is a new campaign that seeks to create a group of future-ready girls. Implemented by Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) and communications firm Evident Communications, “#STEMPower Our Girls” is a social impact program which is a “direct response” to the disparity between the number of men and women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. The program is funded by Investing in Women, an initiative of the Australian government.

PBEd Executive Director Love Basillote noted that globally, “only 30 percent of the STEM workforce are women and as we get to senior leadership roles, we see fewer and fewer women.”

Basillote noted that there are many factors behind this statistic – it can range from cultural, social, or economic. However, she explained that “one such factor is the lack of women role models.” PBED explained that STEM careers are “considered the future of work and not having enough girls pursuing the field can result to a unique set of economic challenges.”

PBED explained that “there are a number of requisites to attracting more women in STEM: Equal opportunities in school and at work, encouragement from the immediate environment, having more female role models, and greater technical and financial support for girls’ and women’s STEM-based aspirations.”

Middle school, PBEd said, is “where girls have a considerable level of interest in STEM – but this interest diminishes as they enter the high school years.”

PBEd also noted one of the challenges why STEM is “even more challenging for girls” is because most of them “are in an environment with reinforced beliefs that STEM is only for boys.”

To break this stigma, PBEd, Evident Communications, and Investing in Women will implement the “#STEMPower Our Girls” program in three pilot areas that include Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Cagayan de Oro wherein a total of 40 girls per pilot area “will be chosen based on academic merit and proclaimed interest in STEM.”