A note from Harriet Hadley (Diversity Manager)
Having myself completed the beginner and advanced Code First: Girls course. I witnessed first-hand how valuable these courses are to both students and hosts. Not to mention Code First: Girls incredible target of teaching 20,000 girls to code by 2020. As part of NewDay’s Community Engagement Programme, we support NewDay in engaging with diverse technical communities. When the opportunity came up to host Code First: Girls brand new Summer intensive course arose we presented it to NewDay and 4 weeks on they have helped 40 more women start their career journey into technology!
We were delighted to welcome 40 students to take part in the summer coding camp, hosted in our London offices. Our inspiring open office space provided an ideal environment for the collaborative working sessions, and some of our NewDay colleagues volunteered as instructors too. The group learnt how to code in HTML, CSS & Javascript with the ultimate aim to build a website and present it in the final session. It was fantastic to see each group’s website; the participants flourished and there were some really original, well presented ideas. The CF:G volunteers were so supportive and enthusiastic – it is clear that they love what they do. In the final session it felt like we had built our own little coding community!
At NewDay we recognise the importance of promoting a diverse and inclusive workforce, so we jumped at the chance to be part of the CF:G mission to increase the number of women in tech. Women are underrepresented in STEM roles, and we would like to be part of changing that! We care about sharing our knowledge to help make positive changes, and working with CF:G was a great opportunity to do so. We were especially pleased to be able to offer the course as a development opportunity to some of our NewDay colleagues too.
Code First: Girls enjoyed partnering with NewDay to host this years Beginners Summer Intensive coding course. Having partners that are keen advocates of diversity & inclusion in tech and push to make positive changes ensures that the women on our courses are taught in a safe environment and are able to thrive in our community, NewDay represents all these qualities. We hope to continue and expand our partnership to provide more learning opportunities to women!
