SA needs to develop technology pioneers to compete in the world
Encouraging girls to pursue technology careers can address the needs of the continent
The University of the Western Cape (UWC) aims to motivate a diverse range of girls to proceed down career paths in the domain of technology and help shape the new technology revolution, addressing local and social challenges.
At the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution, technology is changing the way we live and South Africa has the opportunity to grow the next generation of technology developers to ensure a diversity of solutions which represent the needs of the continent.
Talent is, however, not only confined to any particular group of the population and to solve the many tough challenges facing us in the 21st century, we need to ensure that more women are empowered and active in science, technology, education and mathematics (Stem) careers.
While women in Stem fields are not a homogeneous group, the challenges they face often provide a consistent theme which requires a range of responses. The government has made strides through legislation and related interventions in Stem.
These challenges also require interventions at a grassroot level. But many of the challenges faced are often not unique to South Africa and hinder the grassroots development of the technology pipeline of diverse human resources. These issues include the lack of role models; limited access to information for children in rural and disadvantaged communities of career path choices in fields such as technology; and the inability of young children to pursue or succeed in mathematics and related subjects thus hindering access to higher education in these subjects.
Academic institutions have an opportunity to provide enabling and empowering environments for communities that will allow young men and women to be involved as contributors in building the next pipeline of diverse technology experts. Each year at the Department of Information Systems under the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at UWC, we embrace Women’s Month in August. Thus, 100 girls studying in Grade 9 from 10 schools across different townships in Cape Town are invited to a programme tailored to immerse them in the lives of women who work in the tech industry.
Through this initiative, girls are given the opportunity to engage with a diverse range of successful women already working in their field, engaging them on their life journeys into technology as well as their daily role requirements. The girls are further offered an opportunity to learn the basic principles of programming and have the opportunity to see their programming projects come to life. In addition, they present blog posts and develop finch robot programmes using basic Scratch language.
These pupils then have a responsibility to give feedback on what they have learned from the programme, also describing how they intend to go back to their community and school to influence other girls and boys to consider careers in the field of information and communications technology (ICT). This programme is followed by a yearly hackathon where young male and female students engage with local social challenges which affect women in surrounding local communities and come up with technological solutions to address them.
Through such initiatives, UWC aims to create an awareness among students of the need to develop technology solutions which address local and social challenges. Moreover, it also intends to motivate the diverse range of girls to proceed down career paths in the domain of technology.
In SA, many children still grow up without reliable access to digital and educational resources in rural area and townships. Hence, academic institutions have an opportunity to fill this void and produce digital citizens who can go on to make their mark in the world.