Gomoa-Fetteh (C/R), Feb. 17, GNA - Sixty females between 13 and 18 years selected from underprivileged communities in the Greater Accra Region are undergoing training in problem-solving skills and robotics under a programme known as “Females in Tech Initiative”.
They are learning the “Internet of Things” to empower young girls, who are Junior High and Senior High School graduates, to generate and implement transformational ideas and projects that could be beneficial to their communities.
The programme involves training young girls in skills and knowledge in Coding, Soldering, Electronics, Embedded Systems, Internet Cloud Systems and Developing Software Application, as well as Product Design and Design Thinking.
About 50,000 girls nationwide are expected to benefit from the initiative in the next five years.
The beneficiaries are going through a two-day bootcamp training at the Pentecost Convention Centre, Gomoa-Fetteh in the Central Region, to hone their skills in software development, entrepreneurship and project design.
They are expected after the training to influence their peers with tech re-orientation and positively impact their immediate environment.
The Females in Tech Initiative was launched on October 4, 2018, and being implemented by Dream Oval Foundation, an NGO with focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in collaboration with the Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development.
The programme is funded by SAP, a multi-national software corporation based in Germany aimed at breaking the myth and demystifies the perception that girls are incapable to explore into the technological profession.
Addressing the beneficiaries at the bootcamp at the weekend, Mr Francis Asare Ahene-Affol, the Director of Dream Oval Foundation, said the training forms part of efforts to drive digital inclusion among young girls and enable them to interact and bond together.
He said the girls were selected from Nima and Mamobi, both suburbs in Accra, to enhance their digital skills to enable them to thrive in the 21st Century job market.
Consequently, it would aid in fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Quality Education and Gender Equality and Partnership, as well as bridge the digital divide and provide opportunities for girls.
Mr Ahene-Affol said this year, some of the beneficiaries would be enrolled under the Ashesi University Innovation Experience to enable to interact with their peers across Africa and enhance their confidence.
He said some less privileged girls from Madina and Fadama would later in the year enrolled onto the programme.
A 15-year old Mohammed Nura, of Nima, a beneficiary of the programme, told the Ghana News Agency that, she wanted to be a Software Engineer in the future.
Miss Nura said within the eight weeks of being enrolled onto the programme, she has learnt how to connect electrical gadgets and a resistor, how to use electrical devices to detect the temperature in a room and using a drone to monitor one’s farming activities.
Miss Ayisha Mohammed, 19, another beneficiary, and a product of Accra Girls High School, said she had learnt that one does not need a university degree or master’s degree in philosophy before one could do something beneficial for his or her community.
She said one needed determination and foresight in life to achieve great heights in life, and added that the training programme had enabled her to create software applications by using smart phone system to control electrical gadgets.
GNA
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS