Engage with 300 young underserved girls on computer science basics as CODE FUTURE Curriculum is launched in partnership with Edulever to promote interest in Coding and Computer Science
Furthering its commitment to empower and enable youth through technology and build greater diversity and gender equality in the IT sector, Microsoft India dedicated its fourth edition of YouthSpark Live to encourage young girls to explore Computer Science as a future employment opportunity.
According to the release, organized in partnership with NASSCOM Foundation, this year’s edition of YouthSpark Live saw 300 young girls between the age group of 15-24 from the under-represented communities attend a daylong workshop focused on demystifying computer coding and making computer code more accessible and understandable. The girls were introduced to coding through interactive fun filled exercises like controlling ‘Harold the Robot’ through accurate voice commands and gamification using the classic Minecraft game. The objective of the program was to make computer science accessible to all youth with the underlying principle that basic technology skills can help anyone and everyone do more and be more regardless of the field in which they work.
YouthSpark Live 2016 also saw the launch of ‘CODE FUTURE’ curriculum developed in partnership with Edulever. Through the ‘CODE FUTURE’ project, NASSCOM Foundation will introduce and promote Computer Science to a minimum of 12,000 under-served youth by delivering training and encourage them to pursue higher courses in advanced computing and leverage these skills for future employment. Since it was launched in 2012, Microsoft YouthSpark has created educational, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for more than 300 million youth around the world. YouthSpark Live 2016 seeks to deliver deep and impactful experiences by enabling young girls to collaborate, inspire and support each other, while using technology to spark change.
Mr. Ashok Pamidi, Head, Diversity and Inclusion & Regional Head, Karnataka, NASSCOM, said, “Today, the IT industry in India has approximately 34% of women employees and there is still a lot to be done to erase this gender disparity. We are glad to partner with Microsoft to help inspire India’s young girls and women to take up IT as a career opportunity and accelerate their growth.”
Madhu Khatri, Associate General Counsel, Microsoft India, said, “Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more. To carry out our mission, it’s critical that we do our part to close the gender gap with computer science education and ensuring that all youth, no matter where they live or what their background may be have the opportunity to learn computer science and understand how technology works as well as how to create, apply and use it. This is imperative to build a more diverse and talented pipeline of future workforce.”
