Code First: Girls
Not for Profit Social Enterprise | |
Industry | High tech startups |
Founded | 2012 |
Founders | Alice Bentinck, Matthew Clifford |
Headquarters | London, England |
Area served | United Kingdom |
Key people | Amali de Alwis, CEO |
Website | www.codefirstgirls.org.uk |
Code First: Girls is a Not for Profit Social Enterprise that works exclusively with women in Britain to develop coding skills.[1][2]
The organisation promotes gender diversity and female participation in the technology sector by offering free and paid training and courses for students and professional women.[3] It also supports businesses to train staff and develop talent management policies.[4]
As of June 2016, Code First: Girls is reported to have provided in excess of £1.5 million worth of free coding courses to more than 1,500 women since 2013.[5][6]
Programs
According to the Code First: Girls website, the organisation offers "simple web and computer programming".[7] The course aims are to provide practical skills that can be applied to a participants' studies, their workplace, or if they are beginning their own tech startup.[8] Delivery of the courses comprises in-person lectures and tutorials.
Application process
Code First: Girls
Code First: Girls provide free part-time coding courses called University Chapters, at UK and Ireland campuses, which is exclusively for female university students.[9]
General courses in London are also delivered and are open to women with the following eligibility: Aged between 18-23; or Aged 18+ and currently studying; or Aged 18+ and completed their studies in the past 2 years.[10]
Code First: Professionals
Code First: Professionals women's courses are fee paying. These courses teach participants to make a website, how to improve its design and how to publish it online.[11]
History
Code First: Girls began in late 2012 as "a nine-week, free, part-time course to get female graduates from all walks of life not only interested in coding, but also better equipped to contribute to technical discussions in high-tech businesses".[12]
Founded by Alice Bentinck and Matthew Clifford, Code First: Girls was created they recognised a lack of female applications for their pre-seed investment programme Entrepreneur First (EF) .[13][14][15] EF supports the development of Code First: Girls.[16]
Bentinck claims that of the first cohort to complete Code First: Girls training, more than half of the women participants now self-identify as "technical" or working in software-development roles.[17]
Amali de Alwis was announced as first Chief Executive Officer of the organisation on Wednesday 8 April 2015, taking over from Bentinck and Clifford .[18][19]
In 2016 Code First: Girls was nominated for a National Diversity Award.[20][21]
References
- ↑ "Are girls-only tech clubs the right way to get more women into the channel? | CRN". Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ Davies, Sally (9 May 2014). "Girl power cracks code to storm the land of geeks". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
- ↑ "Code First: Girls". Code First: Girls. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ McDonald, Clare (29 June 2016). "To create more female engineers, we need to create more strong female role models". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
- ↑ "Men still outnumber women in tech - what's your theory?". IT PRO. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ Finnegan, Matthew. "Teaching kids to code: Barclays Code Playground isn't the only game in town. Other tools and courses can inspire a new generation of software developers". Techworld. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "Pros FAQ's". Code First: Girls. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "Pros FAQ's". Code First: Girls. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "A/W 2016 courses". Code First: Girls. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "A/W 2016 courses". Code First: Girls. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "CFG pros FAQs". Code First: Girls. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "Girls-only coding class looks to increase female tech startup presence1".
- ↑ "Inspirational Woman: Alice Bentinck | Co-Founder of Entrepreneur First and Code First: Girls". 2016-04-29. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "ELLE's Tech Titans: Alice Bentinck". ELLE UK. 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "Lessons from running a start-up accelerator". Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "London's startup scene is getting more sophisticated". The Economist. 2016-03-10. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "Lessons from running a start-up accelerator". Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ Kirton, Hayley (2015-11-24). "Britain's brightest bulbs in tech travel to Malta confernece". Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "Amali de Alwis joins Code First: Girls as CEO". Code First: Girls. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "I have just voted for Code First: Girls for Community Organisation at The National Diversity Awards, click here to vote for this person". nominate.nationaldiversityawards.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
- ↑ "Register Your Interest". Code First: Girls. Retrieved 2016-10-11.