W.TEC: Working towards bridging the gender gap in STEM
Dear friends,
Trust you are all doing great!
Happy New Year! We hope this year has been as wonderful for you as it has been for us, we appreciate your support towards our various projects and we are looking forward to great opportunities this year.
Please read below to see what we have been up to:
The W.tec Academy running in Kwara and Lagos state concluded its first term in December 2022, the programme graduated a total of 256 & 499 in Kwara and Lagos respectively. The participants can now confidently build a simple website, create and edit videos, graphic designs, data analysis and work on various programming applications like mobile applications etc. Certificates were presented to the successful participants who completed the programme.
It’s back to school for the girls and it’s a New Year and new term for the students after the Christmas and New Year break. W.TEC is also set to resume classes for W. TEC Academy, our co-curricular technology programme for secondary school female students.
For the new term, the Academy will be taking place again in the 23 existing secondary schools in Lagos and Kwara states and we are planning to extend the academy to one additional state (Ondo State) and as well add to the existing schools in Lagos state.
The Academy has been carefully designed for students in these schools to help improve their digital technology skill and empower them with necessary information and skills to boost their academic, entrepreneurial and professional outcomes in the future.
The W.TEC Academy team members will continue to put in their best to make sure the participating schools have their facilities in good shape for a smooth sailing class for the girls. The new students selected for this term in Kwara state will be learning computer fundamentals, Website design using Mobirize, graphic design and Mobile Application. While the Lagos schools will be learning scratch programming, video game design and video editing.
W.TEC Academy is a co-curricular technology programme for public secondary school girls, which presents technology in a practical and engaging way, with the ultimate aim of encouraging more girls to pursue science and technology careers.
The Academy programme in Kwara State is implemented in collaboration with Oracle and the Kwara State Ministry of Education, while the Academy programme in Lagos State is implemented in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Education.
2. W.TEC MakeHer Space Review Meeting and Graduation Ceremony
The W.TEC MakeHER Space programme was renewed and we have the opportunity to train More girls. We commenced this cycle in September with pre-evaluation session in Lagos State, Kwara State, Nasarawa, Abuja and Bauchi State and training is currently running in in cohorts in 21 centers across the states. Our team is set to train more girls on Renewable Energy to build projects like power bank, solar phone charger, rechargeable lamp and many more. Makeher Space is a programme by W.TEC designed to provide women and girls (ages 10-25 years) hands-on skills, to build technological and engineering-based solutions for their communities.
Prior to the graduation ceremony, W.TEC held a review meeting for the project in all the states with facilitators, state coordinators, supervisors and partners in all the state to review the progress of the project and discussed what went well and areas that needs improvement in terms of mobilization, celebrations, supports, equipment, curriculum and many more. It was indeed a very productive meeting in all the states as we tackled all the topics. W. TEC also had a courtesy visit to some of the partners in Abuja on the 21st of June 2022. W.TEC MakeHER Space Programme is done with support from Google.
3. 2022 W.TEC She Creates Camp
W.TEC She Creates Camp is an initiative designed for girls to inspire them to be more enlightened about the importance of ICT, to know how to create digital contents and also to develop the skills that uses information communication technologies effectively and productively.
The 2022 W.TEC She Creates Camp was the 15th of its kind; it is an initiative of the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) tagged ‘’Eco Innovators” the 2-weeks programme took place at Laureates College, Mafoluku, Lagos which commenced on Sunday 7th August 2022 and ended on Saturday 20th August 2022 with a graduation ceremony which was graced by partners, sponsors and parents/guardians of the students, and the media was not left out to cover the grand event.For the two weeks, the young women participated in technology workshops, career presentations, excursions and leadership activities. The She Creates Camp provides a high quality and exciting environment where the girls learn to create useful technologies for everyday living through computer programming, digital electronics, mobile application development, graphics and 3D design, electrical & electronic solution, filmmaking and digital animation programming. The camp ended with a graduation and exhibition of projects the girls worked on. 28 girls participated and graduated from the 2022 She Creates Camp. In line with the sustainability plan of the She Creates Camp, a courtesy visit was made to the Lagos State Ministry of Education, A post follow-up call which is done quarterly kicked off and a campaign (giving Tuesday) was launched in support towards the programme.
W.TEC staff visited the Tutor General/Permanent Secretary of the Lagos state ministry of education district 4 in appreciation of their support towards our camp through the past years, the courtesy visit took place on the 23rd of November 2022, we presented the camp report to him and went along with some students who participated in the camp to share their experience of the camp, it was an interesting visit as the TG/PS was elated to have us and to hear our success stories about how W.TEC offered the students scholarships to attend the camp and how the camp has helped a lot of the students in the government schools to be more conversant with the use of technology.
Giving Tuesday is our annual end of year campaign tagged “Make Her Great” which runs from November to December, it aims to build a sustainable support system that will enable us maintain a long-term pipeline for our W.TEC beneficiaries. Giving Tuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea, a day that encourages people to contribute towards helping the society. Over the past decade, this idea has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of people to give and celebrate generosity. The movement also strives to build a world in which the catalytic power of generosity is at the heart of the society we build together, unlocking dignity, opportunity and equity around the globe.
As part of a sustainability plan for the She Creates Alumni, W.TEC created a survey for all her camp alumni to evaluate them based on their STEAM skills and how they have been using technology they learnt at the She create camp in their day-to-day activities.
This evaluation helps us find out how they are using their ICT skills in their various career paths, we also give the alumni the opportunity to share innovative ideas on how to improve our curriculum for the next camp. This evaluation is done annually in order for us to maintain a relationship with all our alumni.
Plans are currently on the pipeline for the 2023 She Creates Camp while we seek for co-operate and individual donors & partners. Our target for 2023 is 50 participants from both private & public schools.
4. Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT) programme wrap up and resumption for the next circle
The SHE CAN WITH ICT programme continues its training for 2022/2023 grant circle and has equipped 101 existing and inspiring female entrepreneurs with technology skills and knowledge. The programme is proposed to reach 500 existing and aspiring business women in its in-person and online classes.
The Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT), is a W.TEC Initiative designed to improve the productivity and profitability of women-owned businesses, by equipping them with in-depth practical digital technology skills and tools to catalyze their entrepreneurial growth in an increasingly technology-driven business environment. The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is implementing the SHE CAN WITH ICT programme in collaboration with Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation.
The programme has trained 97 participants in Lagos and this was done in partnership with International Women Society (IWS), Sickle Cell Advocacy and Management Initiative (SAMI). The participants trained so far were excited to be part of the training and the feedback was fantastic. Other trainings will follow up working these partners and other new partners we are having discussion with to bring the training to more women in the state.
The SHE CAN WITH ICT programme since it’s commencement in Kwara State has trained 202 business women and aspiring business women in the 4 cohorts out of the planned 6 cohorts. The feedback from the participants gave us the zeal and motivation to continue the training as participants who graduated from the programme refer other interested business women and aspiring business women to join the next cohort of the training.
The online version of the SHE CAN with ICT programme has also trained 49 participants in total. The online classes are organised to cater for interested women who cannot take part in the in-person training due to unavoidable reasons.
We look forward to equipping more existing and aspiring female entrepreneurs and impacting more lives in this new year.
5. W.TEC SHE TALKS TECH:
She talks tech is a women’s-focused show aimed at presenting technology in a fun, accessible and practical way. Research shows that digital technology has the potential to improve women’s quality of life, but much of this potential is unfulfilled due to structural factors like prohibitive cost of access. Our target audiences are women aged 18 to 40 years. The radio show focuses on Interviews with women working in technology careers covering their career journeys, mistakes they made, what their typical day is like, advice to other women building a successful career in technology, Technology tips and techniques for business, managing personal lives, building networks, managing health, education, etc
6. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL CHILD WAS CELEBRATED AT OREGUN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, KUDIRAT ABIOLA WAY IKEJA:
International Day of the Girl Child is an annual event and internationally recognized on October 11, declared by the United Nations, to empower girls and amplify their voices, support more opportunities for them and increases awareness of gender inequality they face worldwide. The celebration of the day also "reflects the successful emergence of girls and young women as a distinct cohort in development policy, programming, campaigning and research.
To celebrate the international day of the Girl Child this year, the Women’s Technology
Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) marked the event at two centres in Lagos state. The first event was celebrated in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) on the 11th October 2022 and the second event was celebrated in collaboration with Cummins West Africa at the Oregun Junior High school on the 12th of October 2022.
The event featured well packed and interesting activities to mark the day. We had keynote speakers who gave a talk on the theme for this year “Our time is now our rights, our future “
Representatives from Cummins, Union Bank, the Ministry of Education and a host of some of our alumnae who are in the STEM field graced the occasion. The young STEM professionals spoke to the girls andhad a mentoring session with them in groups. They shared the story of their journey into STEMfield and also how they have succeeded and are succeeding in the STEM fields. The girls also had a practical workshop on electronics and renewable energy projects wherethe girls learnt how to build a solar phone charger and a power bank. The girls presented theirprojects and the best group were announced and given gifts. The girls shared their mentoring experience and asked some of the questions and concerns they have; these questions wereanswered and advise where also given to them when necessary.
Thank you for your continuous support towards our various projects, your contribution is significant and enables us reach out to more beneficiaries. We kindly solicit for your continuous donations towards our work.
Warm regards,
Maryam Abdulsalam
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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Follow W.TEC on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @wteconline
Visit W.TEC website: www.wtec.org.ng
Email W.TEC: info@wtec.org.ng
ABOUT W.TEC & THE W.TEC ACADEMY:
The W.TEC Academy is an after-school technology programme for girls in public secondary schools, designed to inspire girls to pursue computer science careers. The girls go through a year-long computing curriculum, which includes Computer Architecture & Networking, Scratch Programming, Alice Programming and Digital Arts.
The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian nonprofit organisation committed to building a more inclusive technology ecosystem, with the next generation of women technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
Links:
W.TEC: Working towards bridging the gender gap in STEM
Dear friends,
Trust you are all doing great!
The year 2022 has been engaging and interesting for us at W.TEC with lots of activities and impact filled projects.
Please read below to see what we have been up to:
It’s back to school and new session in Nigeria after the long-term break and resumption for the first term and new session in schools across the country. W.TEC is also set and has resumed classes for W. TEC Academy, our co-curricular technology programme for secondary school female students.
The third term 2021/2022 academic session was an interesting training session for the girls across the two states (Kwara and Lagos) as they went through a practical and engaging curriculum comprised of computer fundamentals, programming with scratch programming, video game design, video editing and graphic design. The academy took place in 23 schools across the two states with over1500 students. The term ended with a post evaluation test and graduation ceremony where we had STEM female professionals talk to the girls and certificate were issued to the participants of the programme
For the new session, the Academy will be taking place again in the 23 existing secondary schools in Lagos and Kwara states and we are planning to bring on board 2-3 additional schools. For this session, we plan to cover a target of 600 school girls per term across the 2 states.
The Academy has been carefully designed for students in these schools to help improve their digital technology skill and empower them with necessary information and skills to boost their academic, entrepreneurial and professional outcomes in the future.
The W.TEC Academy team members will continue to put in their best to make sure the participating schools have their facilities in good shape for a smooth sailing class for the girls. The new students selected for this term in Kwara state will be learning computer fundamentals, Website design using Mobirize and Mobile Application. While the Lagos schools will be learning scratch programming, video game design and video editing.
W.TEC Academy is a co-curricular technology programme for public secondary school girls, which presents technology in a practical and engaging way, with the ultimate aim of encouraging more girls to pursue science and technology careers.
The Academy programme in Kwara State is implemented in collaboration with Oracle and the Kwara State Ministry of Education, while the Academy programme in Lagos State is implemented in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Education.
2. W.TEC received a National Recognition Award.
W.TEC’s MakeHER Space project received a national recognition award from the honorable Minister of Communication and Digital Economy Nigeria. The Minister also presented to W.TEC #WSIS2020 Championship certificate on behalf of the United Nations Agency for ICTs (@ITU) Secretary General. He commended the work W.TEC is doing to bridge the gender gap in ICT by inspiring, encouraging and equipping the female gender through their various trainings and programmes.
Our MakeHER Space project, - an initiative designed by W.TEC in collaboration with Google to teach girls to create technology and engineering-based solutions that solve problems in their communities, provide information about career options and expose them to women working successfully in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) technology and engineering empowerment programme for women. The project is supported by Google, and has trained over 3,551 women and girls in numerous tech skills across Nigeria since 2020 till date.
WSIS Prizes is a unique international contest developed in response to requests from the WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognize individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional and international agencies, research institutions and private-sector companies for outstanding success in implementing development-oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development.
3. W.TEC MakeHer Space Review Meeting and Graduation Ceremony
The W.TEC MakeHer Space program came to an end in Nasarawa, Bauchi and Abuja with a graduation Ceremony in the different states, on the 2nd of July 2022 in Bauchi and 9th July 2022 in Abuja and Nasarawa to celebrate the various girls who participated 22 cohorts of the MakeHer Space programme and recognize their achievements throughout the program. The program also came to an end in the participating schools in Lagos state and Kwara State in June 2022 before the schools went on third term holiday.
Prior to the graduation ceremony in W.TEC held review meeting for the project in all the states with facilitators, state coordinators, supervisors and partners in all the state to review the progress of the project and discuss about what went well and areas that needs improvement in terms of mobilization, celebrations, supports, equipment, curriculum and many more. It was indeed a very productive meeting in all the states as we tackled all the topics.
4. W.TEC held her Early Innovators Camp for the second time in August 2022
The Early Innovators camp is a 2-week tech fun learning experience for kids between the ages of 7– 12 years. Our innovative STEM summer camp for kids in 2022 features lots of intelligence-building sessions with participants towards developing their skills, learnt in a fun-learning and safe environment. The camp features classes on the following:
a) Electronics
b) Game design
c) Computer programming
d) Creative arts, and critical thinking sessions.
The aim of the non-residential camp is to harness the innate curiosity of children by introducing them to computing and science concepts through play and exploration, there-by providing them with early inspiration to solving significant problems around them by exploring information and communication technology (ICTs).
The camp is designed to spark and awakened the ICT talents of participants which will become handy for them as they progress with their studies.
The W.TEC Early Innovators Camp is an initiative by W.TEC designed for boys and girls aged 5-12 years to create a generation of young programmers, designers, and entrepreneurs who can innovatively build amazing games, apps, and more. Over those past few years our STEAM camp has been described as memorable and educative by parents of alumni. Feedback from our last editions indicated a general improvement of the kids in their interest of computers and other internet enabled devices.
5. 2022 W.TEC She Creates Camp
W.TEC SHE CREATES camp is an annual programme, which started in 2008. It is an initiative of W.TEC which aims to mould young girls’ psyche, give them a positive image of technology, related fields and opportunities while bridging the knowledge and skill gap between boys and girls in their career path. W.TEC She Creates Camp is an initiative designed for girls to inspire them to be more enlightened about the importance of ICT, to know how to create digital contents and also to develop the skills that uses information communication technologies effectively and productively.
Since 2008, W.TEC has run and greatly impacted 610girls through the She Creates camp initiative in Lagos, Oyo, Kwara and Anambra state (Anambra camp launched in 2018) with wonderful success stories.
The 2022 W.TEC She Creates Camp was the 15th of its kind; it is an initiative of the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) tagged ‘’Eco Innovators”. The technology camp offers a variety of programmes and activities, which teaches students how to build and use technology in dynamic and innovative ways.
The 2-weeks programme took place at Laureates College, Mafoluku, Lagos which commenced on Sunday 7th August 2022 and ended on Saturday 20th August 2022 with a graduation ceremony which was graced by partners, sponsors and parents/guardians of the students, and the media was not left out to cover the grand event.For the two weeks, the young women participated in technology workshops, career presentations, excursions and leadership activities. The She Creates Camp provides a high quality and exciting environment where the girls learn to create useful technologies for everyday living through computer programming, digital electronics, mobile application development, graphics and 3D design, electrical & electronic solution, filmmaking and digital animation programming.
This year the camp focused on Software Innovations, Renewable energy & Electronics. the girls learnt computer programming, critical thinking, data types, program flow, computer programming paradigms, renewable energy, sematic diagrams, electronic symbols, solar system, tie & dye etc.
The students worked in groups using the computer systems provided to them at the start of each day. There were also extra-curricular activities, which made the camp stay more fun-filled. These are life skills that would help the girls’ live more balanced lives while building careers and having families. These life skills comprise of sessions such as Self-Defence, Team Building, Karaoke night, staying safe online, and emotional Intelligence. The entrepreneurship and skill acquisition session were exciting for the girls as they learnt how to make Tie & Dye as well as creative arts (Art & Craft), this was designed to enable girls start thinking of a business to venture into. Most of the girls have not had the opportunity of learning some of the skills taught prior to their stay at the camp and this made it a life-time experience for most of them, and a commitment to continue in the knowledge impacted to them. At the end of the camp the girls build different projects and did an exhibition on the different things they learnt during the graduation.
The students provided feedback on the camp sessions in their evaluation forms and some are included below:
The class was fun, I learnt new things I learnt how to build an app and many other things, the camp has helped me to choose what I want to be in future before the camp I had lots of options – Fareedah S.
I learnt how to create an app called classic clinic where you can chat with a doctor and the doctor can treat you - Blessing
Choosing the right career
I will follow the advices in accomplishing my goals.
- Ajayi
UI/UX Design
I enjoyed it because I got to explore so many ideas
- Oreoluwa T.
Enlightens one knowledge and makes one creative
- Oti E.
Staying Safe online
I will use the knowledge I have gotten to keep myself and others safe online.
- Ugwo S.
The event was featured by Media, below are some of the links:
6. Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT) programme wrap up and resumption for the next circle
The SHE CAN WITH ICT programme launched its 2022/2023 grant circle in May 2022 and has equipped 101 existing and inspiring female entrepreneurs with technology skills and knowledge. For the 2022/2023 grand circle, the programme is proposed to reach 500 existing and aspiring business women in its in-person and online classes.
The Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT), is a W.TEC Initiative designed to improve the productivity and profitability of women-owned businesses, by equipping them with in-depth practical digital technology skills and tools to catalyze their entrepreneurial growth in an increasingly technology-driven business environment. The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is implementing the SHE CAN WITH ICT programme in collaboration with Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation,
The first cohort of participants in Lagos were trained in partnership with International Women Society (IWS) one of our partners in Lagos, we will be working with other partners to bring the training to more women in the state.
The SHE CAN WITH ICT programme is extended to Kwara State due to the high demand and request and has commences training. We plan to have six (6) cohorts with 50 women per cohort which is to run concurrently. The first cohort of the training graduated 58 women and has commenced the second cohort.
We look forward to equipping more existing and aspiring female entrepreneurs and impacting more lives.
7. W.TEC participated in the 2022 Accelium Olympics:
The Accelium Olympics are challenging online tournaments of strategy games that will captivates students’ imagination and develop their strategic thinking skills, self-awareness, focus, and persistence. It allows participants to practically demonstrate critical thinking skills through games. This year Accelium training camp held from May 15th-June 5th 2022 and the tournament was from June 6th- 8th, 2022
W.TEC partnered with Simply Un4gettable to participate in this years’ global Accelium Olympics. We worked closely with the partner to coach and groom 50 girls in 5 Nigeria secondary schools for tournament 3 and 4. 1 of our girls emerged champion in tournament 4 and another was recognised in tournament 3- both of them were invited and presented their gifts at the W.TEC Early Innovators Camp and She Creates Camp (W.TEC awarded Oreoluwa T. Full scholarship to the camp for her excellent participation during the Accelium Olympics) as schools were already on holidays when their gifts arrived.
- Oreoluwa emerged the African and national Champion, being 10th in the world, out of 425 participants who participated in Tournament 4. Oreoluwa was presented her gift during our W.TEC She Creates Camp on the 18th of August, 2022. The W.TEC She Creates Camp is a residential science & technology education and mentoring programme designed to teach girls in secondary
Schools (ages 13 – 17) to learn to create useful solutions and technologies for everyday living through the application of engineering and scientific concepts, programming, mobile application development, and digital content development. 2022 She Creates Camp held from August 7 – 20, 2022. https://wtec.org.ng/she-creates-camp-2/
- Barakat B’s gift was presented to her at the W.TEC Early Innovators Camp on 16th August 2022.
The W.TEC Early Innovators camp is a 2-week tech fun learning experience for kids between the ages of 5– 12 years. Our innovative STEM camp for kids in 2022 features lots of intelligence-building sessions with participants towards developing their much-needed skills, learnt in a fun-learning and safe environment. 2022 edition of the W.TEC Early Innovators camp held from August 7 – 19, 2022.
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Thank you for supporting and sharing our work. Please continue to donate to our work. Also consider becoming a recurring donor and setting-up automatic monthly payments to us. We especially need your support at this time.
Together, we can keep working to build a pipeline that supports girls and women throughout their journeys from early engagement to a career in technology and sciences. We thank you and our girls thank you too.
Warm regards,
Maryam Abdulsalam
*******************
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
ABOUT W.TEC & THE W.TEC ACADEMY:
The W.TEC Academy is an after-school technology programme for girls in public secondary schools, designed to inspire girls to pursue computer science careers. The girls go through a year-long computing curriculum, which includes Computer Architecture & Networking, Scratch Programming, Alice Programming and Digital Arts.
The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian nonprofit organisation committed to building a more inclusive technology ecosystem, with the next generation of women technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
Dear friends,
Trust you are all doing great!
The first half of the year 2022 has been engaging for us at W.TEC with lots of activities and impact filled projects.
Our team have been working in various capacity to nature the next generation of female technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders through the programmes we run.
Please read below to see what we have been up to:
A. W.TEC Academy resumes its third term for the 2021/2022 School Year
It’s back to school season in Nigeria after the second term break and resumption for the third term in schools across the country. W.TEC is also set and has resumed classes for W. TEC Academy, our co-curricular technology programme for secondary school female students.
The second term was an interesting training session for the girls across the two states (Kwara and Lagos) as they went through a practical and engaging curriculum comprised of computer fundamentals, programming with scratch programming, video game design, video editing and graphic design. The academy took place in 23 schools across the two states with over 700 students. The term ended with a post-evaluation test and a talk session with the girls from selected female educators in the various school and certificates were issued to the participants of the programme
For the third term, the Academy is taking place again in 23 secondary schools in Lagos and Kwara states with a target of 600 school girls participating. The Academy has been carefully designed for students in these schools to help improve their digital technology skills and empower them with the necessary information and skills to boost their academic, entrepreneurial and professional outcomes in the future.
The W.TEC Academy team members have also put in their best to make sure the participating schools have their facilities in good shape for a smooth sailing class for the girls. The new students selected for this term in Kwara state will be learning computer fundamentals, scratch programming and graphic design. While the Lagos schools will be learning Scratch programming, video game design and video editing.
W.TEC Academy is a co-curricular technology programme for public secondary school girls, which presents technology in a practical and engaging way, with the ultimate aim of encouraging more girls to pursue science and technology careers.
The Academy programme in Kwara State is implemented in collaboration with Oracle and the Kwara State Ministry of Education, while the Academy programme in Lagos State is implemented in collaboration with the Lagos State Science and Research Innovation Council (LASRIC) and the Lagos State Ministry of Education.
B. W.TEC Academy, Lagos rounded up the project with Lagos State Research Innovation Council (LASRIC)
The W.TEC Academy in collaboration with Lagos State Research Innovation Council (LASRIC) which commenced in April 2021 ended in all participating schools on March 23rd 2022 as schools began their revision in preparation for the end of term exam. All girls who graduated from the W.TEC Academy earned a certificate of participation from W.TEC.
The primary aim of the W.TEC Academy, sponsored by LASRIC is to help girls develop an early interest in science, engineering and technology, and support and encourage them to pursue STEM-related entrepreneurial and professional paths in the future. This aim was indeed achieved through the project with evidence from the girls and schools.
W.TEC primary target number for the project was 300; the target number was not only met but exceeded as we trained 671 girls. Feedback collected on our programmes indicates that beneficiaries of previous Academies regularly share the knowledge and skills they have gained with others within their networks, thereby family members, classmates, neighbours and community members also benefited from the Academy, showcasing the “female multiplier effect.
C. Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT) programme wrap up and resumption for the next circle
The SHE CAN WITH ICT programme launched its 2021/2022 grant circle in September 2021 and has equipped 427 existing and inspiring female entrepreneurs with technical skills and knowledge. The programme proposed to target 300 existing and aspiring businesswomen in its in-person and online classes, and was able to reach 427 women due to the high demand and interest of the women.
The Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT), is a W.TEC Initiative designed to improve the productivity and profitability of women-owned businesses, by equipping them with in-depth practical digital technology skills and tools to catalyze their entrepreneurial growth in an increasingly technology-driven business environment. The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is implementing the SHE CAN WITH ICT programme in collaboration with Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation,
The programme was well-received by women, and a mentoring session was set in a place to help the women connect with professional women in business who share their wealth of experience and help them with any problem they have and guide them through to achieve and run a successful business. The programme wrapped up for this circle in April with graduation in one of its centres at Ikorodu Lagos State, Nigeria, in attendance were female entrepreneurs, volunteers, partner organizations, media and staff of W.TEC. 5 women emerged as winners for the SHE CAN WITH ICT seed grants; each winner received a sum of N100, 000.00 to help their businesses. The participants of the training who have not registered their business also had the opportunity to do so with the help of the Secretary Association of Nigerian Women in Business (ANWIB) who was present at the one of the graduation.
Participant’s feedback:
During this programme, I have been able to learn about the photo Editing App called Inshot. Way before the programme I do go around talking to my customers about how my product is or how my fruit is but with this programme I am able to learn how to put together videos for my business using Inshot and making them more attractive. I can now load my videos on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. My videos now look more attractive since I put them well for my customers to view and they patronize me better than before and it attracted more customers outside my network.
- Ifeyinwa ( Ify’s Café)
“The Training has been an impactful one which I'm taking steps to implement to move my business forward. Before the Training, I had taken a dislike to the ways in which people go about marketing their products on Social Media. I know there's a need to use ICT to boost our business awareness and patronage, I also have Social Media handles for my business, but the manner in which businesses were going about it put me off. However, the Training gave me a better perspective and I see the need to revamp my approach to Social Media Marketing. I am now engaging better on my social media account and using videos to showcase my business.”
- Olufunmilayo, Team Lead/CEO, VineLife Industries Limited
The next circle of the SHE CAN WITH ICT training 2022/2023 resumes this year in our in-person centres as well as online classes. We look forward to equipping more existing and aspiring female entrepreneurs.
D. Loading… 2022 She Creates Camp
Since 2008, W.TEC has run and greatly impacted 581girls through the She Creates camp initiative in Lagos, Oyo, Kwara and Anambra state (Anambra camp launched in 2018) with wonderful success stories. The forthcoming 14th W.TEC She Creates Camp is scheduled to hold in Lagos & Awka from August 7th – 20th at Laureates College Mafoluko Lagos and August 15th - 26th at Kenneth Dike Memorial eLibrary, Awka, Anambra state respectively.
For the two weeks, the young women will participate in technology workshops, career presentations, excursions and leadership activities. The She Creates Camp provides high quality and exciting environment where the girls learn to create useful technologies for everyday living through computer programming, digital electronics, mobile application development, graphics and 3D design, electrical & electronic solution, filmmaking and digital animation programming.
This year the camp will be focusing on Software Innovations, Renewable energy & Electronics the girls will be learning computer programming, critical thinking, data types, program flow, computer programming paradigms, renewable energy, sematic diagrams, electronic symbols, solar system etc. at the end of the camp the girls would build different projects and present it during the graduation.
The She Creates Camp is aimed at helping to nurture more female technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders, by inspiring and encouraging girls aged 13 to 17 years to explore and learn about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) subjects.
The Early Innovators Camp is a technology camp for girls and boys between the ages of 7 and 12 years and designed to make learning about technology fun and engaging, with the intention of also inspiring them to pursue technology-related careers in the future.
E. W.TEC celebrates the Girls in ICT Day in Abuja and Lagos:
The International Girls in ICT Day is an initiative by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), aimed to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women all over the world to consider careers in the growing field of ICTs, enabling both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector. The global theme for this year's event is “Access and Safety”
W.TEC marked the day with 2 events:
I. W.TEC Celebrated the day with the W.TEC MakeHer Space participants:
A one-day event was held at the Education Resource Center, 55 Harper Street, Zone 7, Wuse, Abuja, FCT in commemoration of the 2022 Girls in ICT Day on the 28th of April, 2022 to celebrate the Girls in ICT Day with select MakeHer Space participants. It featured 102 girls between the ages of 13-20 years old across five MakeHer Space centers.
The MakeHer Space project is an initiative designed by W.TEC in collaboration with Google to teach girls to create technology and engineering-based solutions that solve problems in their communities, provide information about career options and expose them to women working successfully in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). W.TEC is implementing this project in Abuja, Nasarawa and Abuja with Youth Initiative for Sustainable Human Development in Africa (YiSHDA). W.TEC also runs the MakeHer Space project in Lagos and Kwara States.
The main aim of the one-day event was:
The event featured exhibitions of the girls’ works, numerous goodwill and keynote messages from educational, government and ICT stakeholders in Nigeria hand-in-hand with group mentoring session by tech mentors and Hackathon.
Some of the stakeholders on ground at the event, in addition to W.TEC, were from Google.org, YiSHDA, Wootlab, Education Resource Centre (ERC), Sprout Digital, and Auto Lady Inspire Foundation with TVC News Nigeria as the broadcasting media for the event.
Links to the news coverage (print and TV):
II. W.TEC Celebrated the Girls in ICT Day in Lagos
Members of our team and our girls participated in an interactive event, organized by the Microsoft Africa Development Centre in Lagos. They enjoyed presentations, mentorship sessions, career talks, and an office tour.
The event was aimed to engage young girls without prior academic degrees or careers in tech with the aim of introducing them to careers in technology and possible converts. Among others, the day featured, talks about careers in tech, quizzes, mentoring and games.
Thank you to the team at the Microsoft Africa Development Centre for an amazing day.
F. W.TEC Mark the 2022 International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is celebrated on the 8th of March, it is a global day set aside to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The theme for the year 2022 celebration is ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.
To mark this day, the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) organized a virtual event in collaboration with Oracle Academy to help enlighten existing and inspiring female entrepreneurs on best practices to follow to help protect themselves, their businesses and their wards on the internet against scammers, spammers, abuse/bullying, and ideas on how to safely utilize technology to improve their business.
The event featured the following speakers: Folashade – Programme Manager, W.TEC (Moderator) Bekere– Program Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa, Oracle Academy, Victoria– Reporting & Business Intelligence Systemspecs Limited Janet– Marketing Director Africa, Oracle Academy Kasia– Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence Lead at IBM
The event held virtually for 1 hour 30 minutes (from 12noon- 1.30pm). Participants of the event included past SHE CAN with ICT (Sustaining Her Enterprise, Career and Network) participants - an initiative designed by W.TEC to improve the productivity and profitability of women-owned businesses and other interested businesswomen within and outside Nigeria.
During the course of the event, there was a fun Icebreaker session which gave the opportunity to the fastest finger participants to win recharge cards to subscribe for internet/ data; the session was coordinated by Mrs Preye of Kita Concepts. After the speaker’s presentation, the event gave opportunities to participants to ask questions, give feedback and comments about the event.
Participant Feedback:
Below are some of the participant’s feedback after the enlightening session:
News and Publication with links:
The event was featured on both print and internet media:
• Business Day newspaper (scanned copy): https://www.facebook.com/205592802814765/posts/7368895189817788/
G. W.TEC was again, nominated for the #WSISPrizes award this year.
W.TEC’s MakeHER Space project was nominated for the coveted 2022 #WSISPrizes in the Capacity Building Category, which is the 4th category of the awards.
For the 3rd consecutive year the MakeHer Space project made the shortlist of 360 nominees out of 1,000 projects submitted from all over the world. Our MakeHER Space project, - an initiative designed by W.TEC in collaboration with Google to teach girls to create technology and engineering-based solutions that solve problems in their communities, provide information about career options and expose them to women working successfully in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) technology and engineering empowerment programme for women. The project is supported by Google and has trained over 3,551 women and girls in numerous tech skills across Nigeria since 2020 till date.
WSIS Prizes is a unique international contest developed in response to requests from the WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognize individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional and international agencies, research institutions and private-sector companies for outstanding success in implementing development-oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development.
To win the award, W.TEC must emerge with the most votes in the nominated category. Voting ended in March 2022 and we are currently keeping our fingers crossed for the result announcement.
H. W.TEC held her Early Innovators Camp in April 2022
In April 2022, W.TEC trained boys and girls through the Early Innovators Camp, themed: Tech Craft.
W.TEC Easter STEAM – camp (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Maths) for girls and boys between ages 5-12 is slated to run from April 11th – 22nd, 2022.
The camp is directed to ensure a fun, creative and engaging learning sessions for the children. We aim to help the participants develop an early interest in computer science, information technology and related careers with the aid of our experienced facilitators.
Camp Curriculum:
More skills students learnt included; Programming, Basic electronics, Creative Arts/design, Team Building, and other fun activities.
Our curriculum was well-selected to help exhibit the student’s creativity and STEAM-related skills in an increasingly technology-driven world.
The W.TEC Early Innovators Camp is an initiative by W,TEC designed for boys and girls aged 5-12 years to create a generation of young programmers, designers, and entrepreneurs who can innovatively build amazing games, apps, and more. Over those past few years, our STEAM camp has been described as memorable and educative by parents of alumni.
*******************
Thank you for supporting and sharing our work. Please continue to donate to our work. Also, consider becoming a recurring donor and setting up automatic monthly payments to us. We especially need your support at this time.
Together, we can keep working to build a pipeline that supports girls and women throughout their journeys from early engagement to a career in technology and sciences. We thank you and our girls thank you too.
Warm regards,
Maryam Abdulsalam
*******************
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
ABOUT W.TEC & THE W.TEC ACADEMY:
The W.TEC Academy is an after-school technology programme for girls in public secondary schools, designed to inspire girls to pursue computer science careers. The girls go through a year-long computing curriculum, which includes Computer Architecture & Networking, Scratch Programming, Alice Programming and Digital Arts.
The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian nonprofit organisation committed to building a more inclusive technology ecosystem, with the next generation of women technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
Dear friends,
We wish you a happy new year and a prosperous 2022, filled with lots of success.
Year 2022 started well for us at W.TEC with so many expectations and possibilities for the rest of the year. The uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced us all to have a rethink and restructure some of our programmes and adapt to our new realities has made us stronger.
As we plan for the year 2022, our team has pulled together with determination to continue on our journey of nurturing the next generation of female technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders through the programmes we run.
Please read below to see what we have been up to:
A. W.TEC Academy resumes its second term for 2021/2022 School Year
It’s back to school season in Nigeria after the Christmas and New Year break and W.TEC is also ready to resume classes for W. TEC Academy, our co-curricular technology programme for secondary school female students.
This term, the Academy is taking place in over 21 secondary schools in Lagos and Kwara states with over 700 school girls participating. The Academy has been carefully designed for students in these schools to help improve their digital technology skills and empower them with necessary information and skills to boost their academic, entrepreneurial and professional outcomes in the future. The students will go through a practical and engaging curriculum comprised of computer fundamentals, programming with scratch programming, video game design, video editing and graphic design.
To ensure effective delivery, the W.TEC team has been hosting a series of review meetings with its trainers and partners; they also organized refresher training for all facilitators assigned to the various schools to keep them up to date with the curriculum to ensure effective training in schools. The W.TEC Academy team members have also put in their best to make sure the participating schools have their facilities in good shape for a smooth sailing class for the girls.
W.TEC Academy is a co-curricular technology programme for public secondary school girls, which presents technology in a practical and engaging way, with the ultimate aim of encouraging more girls to pursue science and technology careers.
The Academy programme in Kwara State is implemented in collaboration with Oracle and the Kwara State Ministry of Education, while the Academy programme in Lagos State is implemented in collaboration with the Lagos State Science and Research Innovation Council (LASRIC) and the Lagos State Ministry of Education.
B. MakeHer Space Project Reviewed Phase 1 and Commenced Phase 2
The pilot phase of the MakeHer space project, initially planned to run as a face-to-face programme was restructured to run in an online format from May – November 2020 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pilot phase was a success with 88 girls given intensive training on Website Design, 3D Modelling, Video Marketing and Market Research and Analysis via 6 cohorts.
Following the successful implementation of the pilot phase, WTEC launched in-person training from May-August 2021 for 887 girls’ participants on Electronics and Renewable Energy panelled projects in Nasarawa, Bauchi and Abuja after the passing of the 2nd wave of the pandemic in Nigeria.
After wrap up of phase 1 in August 2021, we gave a month break for the project in September, to evaluate the project; we also came together to hold a meeting at the federal capital territory, Abuja, which focused on reviewing the lessons and learnings of the previous cohorts and plans for the phase 2 of the project. Present at the meeting were- the W.TEC and MakeHer Space Programme Manager- Mrs Folashade, W.TEC Curriculum Developer- Mr Lesley, Youth Initiative for Sustainable Human Development in Africa (YiSHDA) Director of Programmes- Mr Moses and our amazing state coordinators and facilitators.
In October 2021 we commenced phase 2 of the training and it was indeed another impact filled learning experience for the girls and our trained facilitators. An interesting component we added to phase 2 was giving participants of past cohorts’ access to return to our training centres to perfect their skills by doing extensive work and building community solutions projects using a self-directed approach through the Hybrid sessions.
All participants and facilitators of the projects also had the opportunity to earn W.TEC certificates and digital open badges and certificates which is in alignment with the European Union Digital Competence Framework for Citizens. This phase of the MakeHer space is set to run till June 2022 and will be expanding to Lagos and Kwara State Nigeria from January 2022.
In partnership with the nonprofit organization- Youth Initiative for Sustainable Human Development in Africa (YiSHDA), the MakeHer Space project reached 1221 young girls between the ages of 10 to 25 in Abuja, Nasarawa and Bauchi State Nigeria in 2021.
The MakeHer space project is a Hands-on Technology initiative that teaches young women to create technology and engineering-based solutions that solve problems in their communities, provide information about career options and expose them to women working successfully in STEAM.
The MakeHER Space Programme by W.TEC in Nigeria is done with support from Google.
C. W.TEC marked the 2021 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence
As an organisation focused on empowering women and girls with STEM-based skills, W.TEC held a series of engaging discussion sessions and online activities to mark the 2021 16 Days of Activism campaign for select students of the W.TEC Academy (our afterschool technology club) in Lagos and Kwara state between November and December 2021.
Asides from the workshops sessions we had for girls at their schools, we also had a series of online campaigns. The focus of the workshops and campaign reflected the 2021 theme of the campaign: “Orange the world: End violence against women now!’’.
The events featured speakers from W.TEC and leading teachers from host schools, whose presentations cantered on the following:
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign for the elimination of violence against women and girls. It kicks off on the 25 November and runs until 10 December of every year.
D. W.TEC Issued Digital Badges in line with the European Union Digital Competence Framework for Citizens for Its Programmes.
In 2021, W.TEC introduce the digital open badges for facilitators and volunteers at 4 of her programmes; the MakeHer Space, W.TEC Academy, the She Creates Camp and Early Innovators Camp. Facilitators.
The W.TEC's digital open badges are aligned with the European Union Digital Competence Framework for Citizens and were introduced as part of our work on the Digital Generation Youth project (https://www.citiesoflearning.eu/digital-generation-youth/). Learn more at: https://wtec.org.ng/digital-generation-youth-2/.
Digital Generation Youth is a 2-year project funded by the European Union agency ERASMUS+ and aimed at developing new content, methods and activities to improve the quality of youth non-formal learning programmes. W.TEC is working as part of a coalition of organisations across Europe and Africa focused on imparting digital and 21st-century skills to youths. The organisations are Breakthrough Foundation (Netherlands), Nectarus (Lithuania), Afri.ko (Lithuania) and Ready4Life (South Africa).
E. Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT) achievements
The SHE CAN WITH ICT programme since its launch in September 2021, has equipped 338 existing and inspiring female entrepreneurs with technology skills and knowledge. The beneficiaries of the programme also go through mentorship sessions from professional women who share from their wealth of experience with the participants.
The Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT), is a W.TEC Initiative designed to improve the productivity and profitability of women-owned businesses, by equipping them with in-depth practical digital technology skills and tools to catalyze their entrepreneurial growth in an increasingly technology-driven business environment. The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is implementing the SHE CAN WITH ICT programme in collaboration with Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation,
The graduation ceremony for our beneficiaries took place online (for the virtual classes) and for the in-person centers, we had a graduation ceremony for them physically and also connect them with opportunities. One of the graduation ceremonies took place at International Women Society Jakande Lekki in Lagos State on the 18th of November and another one was held on December 2, 2021, at Impact Center, Ojodu Berger in Lagos State. In attendance were female entrepreneurs, volunteers, partner organizations, media and staff of W.TEC.
Various graduation ceremony centre high tables were graced by the guest speakers and representatives from Women Radio 97.1FM, FCMB, W.TEC, International Women Society, ACT Foundation, AAAF and members of the Association of Nigerian Women in Business (ANWIB).
The SHE CAN WITH ICT training continues this year in our in-person centers as well as online classes. We look forward to equipping more female entrepreneurs in the year 2022.
F. 2021 Camp review and strategy for 2022
In August, 2021 W.TEC organized and hosted the She Creates Camp and Early Innovators Camp virtually for 2 weeks and 4 weeks respectively.
In Week 1 of the She Creates camp, participants learnt Website design and UI/UX design and they learnt Creative Film Editing in week 2. For the Early Innovators camp, the participants learnt 3D Modelling in week 1, Video Game Design for Beginners with Kodu in week 2, Video Game Design for Intermediates with Roblox in week 3 and Junior Filmmakers in week 4.
The last quarter of 2021 was a busy time for us as we reviewed the camp activities and strategized for the coming 2022 camps as well as other projects. W.TEC plan to resume her face-to-face residential and non-residential summer camp this year and it promises to be impact filled. Please stay tuned to hear more about it.
The She Creates Camp is aimed at helping to nurture more female technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders, by inspiring and encouraging girls aged 13 to 17 years to explore and learn about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) subjects.
The Early Innovators Camp is a technology camp for girls and boys between ages 7 and 12 years and designed to make learning about technology fun and engaging, with the intention of also inspiring them to pursue technology-related careers in the future.
G. She Creates Camp Alumnae Spotlight
Oluwanifesimi is an alumnae of the 2014 W.TEC Technology Camp for Girls which is now known as the She Creates Camp, she was selected to attend the camp on scholarship and had an amazing experience there. She returned to the camp 3 times as a volunteering camp instructor and volunteered at the W.TEC Academy. Today, Nifesimi is employed at W.TEC as Programme Assistant for our MakerHer space project, where she supports the Programme Manager in the implementation of the project.
In this feature, Nifesimi shares with us more about herself and how she uses technology to share her passion with the world.
“My name is Oluwanifesimi, I studied Accountancy at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, Nigeria, am an entrepreneur, God-lover, a public speaker and a friend. I also love helping others in achieving their various goals in life.
It was at W.TEC camp I fell in love with technology and the great thing I can do with it. I learnt from the Mobile Application Development class how to build mobile applications and understand how to interact with them. Presentation skills I learnt at the camp through project presentations also helped to get rid of the fear I had for speaking in front of a Crowd.
It has been an amazing journey with W.TEC. I thank the organization for introducing me to Technology. I wouldn't wish for anything better.’’
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After a mix of virtual, in-person and hybrid programmes in 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have been energized and equipped to be able to engage in any of these mediums of programming with our participants this year.
Despite all the challenges, we are determined to keep innovating and adapting best practices and our new realities, so that we can continue to serve all girls and young women.
Thank you for supporting and sharing our work. Because of you, we have been able to increase our reach, improve the quality of our programming and also have a successful 2021.
Please continue to donate to our work. Also, consider becoming a recurring donor and setting up automatic monthly payments to us. We especially need your support at this time.
Together, we can keep working to build a pipeline that supports girls and women throughout their journeys from early engagement to a career in technology and sciences. We thank you and our girls thank you too.
Warm regards,
Maryam Abdulsalam
*******************
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUm1h7FDQVJ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
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https://www.instagram.com/p/CVSr8FojPSf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWsk0BVDUVJ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
ABOUT W.TEC & THE W.TEC ACADEMY:
The W.TEC Academy is an after-school technology programme for girls in public secondary schools, designed to inspire girls to pursue computer science careers. The girls go through a year-long computing curriculum, which includes Computer Architecture & Networking, Scratch Programming, Alice Programming and Digital Arts.
The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian nonprofit organisation committed to building a more inclusive technology ecosystem, with the next generation of women technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
Links:
Dear friends,
We hope that you and your loved ones are all fine and staying safe and healthy.
The uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to adapt to our new realities. We have seen that only the nimble and agile survive in this new climate.
For us at W.TEC, this has necessitated being observant, implementing quickly and learning the lessons we need to as we go along.
Thankfully, our team has pulled together with determination to continue on our journey of nurturing the next generation of female technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
As the pandemic lockdown eases and schools have re-opened, we have been able to run more in-person activities. Notwithstanding, we know that this is not a time to relax on any of the safety protocols.
Please read below to see what we have been up to:
2021 Camp Season Successfully Completed
W.TEC Academy Resumes for 2021/2022 School Year
W.TEC Uses Digital Badges for Its Programmes
W.TEC Partners with ACT Foundation to Train Female Entrepreneurs
MakeHer Space Project Achievements
She Creates Camp Alumnae Spotlight
a.) W.TEC Academy Resumes for 2021/2022 School Year
It's back to school season in Nigeria and W.TEC is also ready to resume classes for W. TEC Academy, our co-curricular technology programme for secondary school female students.
This term, the Academy is taking place in over 15 secondary schools in Lagos and Kwara states with over 500 school girls participating.
The Academy has been carefully designed for students in these schools to help improve their digital technology skill and empower them with necessary information and skills to boost their academic, entrepreneurial and professional outcomes in the future. The students will go through a practical and engaging curriculum comprised of programming with scratch programming, video game design and video editing.
To ensure effective delivery, the W.TEC team has been hosting a series of train-the-trainers session (TOT) for all facilitators assigned to the various schools. The W.TEC Academy team members has also put in their best to make sure the participating schools have their facilities in good shape for a smooth sailing class for the girls.
W.TEC Academy is a co-curricular technology programme for public secondary school girls, which presents technology in a practical and engaging way, with the ultimate aim of encouraging more girls to pursue science and technology careers.
The Academy programme in Kwara State is implemented in collaboration with Oracle and the Kwara State Ministry of Education, while the Academy programme in Lagos State is implemented in collaboration with the Lagos State Science and Research Innovation Council (LASRIC) and the Lagos State Ministry of Education.
b.) 2021 Camp Season Successfully Completed
This year, W.TEC organised and hosted 2 camps for young people: The She Creates Camp and the Early Innovators Camp.
The She Creates Camp is aimed at helping to nurture more female technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders, by inspiring and encouraging girls aged 13 to 17 years to explore and learn about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) subjects.
The 2021 She Creates Summer Camp ended on a high note with a closing ceremony for all the participants, their parents, well wishers and staff of W.TEC. The 2-week camp was capped by a closing ceremony, during which the participants presented their projects and shared what they learnt during the camp.
W.TEC's Executive Director, Oreoluwa Lesi, shared with the parents and participants that W.TEC was set up to help close the gender gap and explained why it is important to have more women engaged in science, technology and engineering fields.
Our participants were so delighted to participate in the camp programme mot of the indicated that they will use their new skills for many activities in the future.
This year's participants came from across Nigeria and joined in the virtual sessions and career talks.
The camp ran from August 30 to September 10 and covered the following topics:
Week 1: Website Design and UI/UX Design
Week 2: Creative Film Editing
W.TEC also hosted the Early Innovators Camp, a technology camp for girls and boys between ages 7 and 12 years and designed to make learning about technology fun and engaging, with the intention of also inspiring them to pursue technology-related careers in the future.
This year's camp ran from August 6 to 27 and drew participants from both Nigeria and the United Kingdom and the curriculum covered the following modules:
Week 1: 3D Modelling
Week 2: Video Game Design for Beginners with Kodu
Week 3: Video Game Design for Intermediates with Roblox
Week 4: Junior Filmmakers
c.) W.TEC Uses Digital Badges for Its Programmes
For the last year and a half, W.TEC has been working as part of the Digital Generation Youth project.
Digital Generation Youth is a 2-year project funded by the European Union agency ERASMUS+ and aimed at developing new content, methods and activities to improve the quality of youth non-formal learning programmes. W.TEC is working as part of a coalition of organisations across Europe and Africa focused on imparting digital and 21st century skills to youths. The organisations are Breakthrough Foundation (Netherlands), Nectarus (Lithuania), Afri.ko (Lithuania) and Ready4Life (South Africa).
A key aspect of this project is the use of digital badges to signify learning achievements. These are similar to the badges one earns when playing video games or during an online learning course, which represent different levels of learning or accomplishment.
W.TEC has developed a system of badges for our MakeHer Space, She Creates Camp and Early Innovators programmes and so far, over 160 badges have been issued to participants and 18 to facilitators. We are looking forward to working with more girls earning badges through our programmes.
Learn more at: https://wtec.org.ng/digital-generation-youth-2/
d.) W.TEC Partners with ACT Foundation to Train Female Entrepreneurs
The Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) in collaboration with Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation, recently launched the latest edition of the ''SHE CAN WITH ICT'' Programme.
The Sustaining Her Enterprise Career and Network (SHE CAN WITH ICT), is a W.TEC Initiative designed to improve the productivity and profitability of women-owned businesses, by equipping them with in-depth practical digital technology skills and tools to catalyze their entrepreneurial growth in an increasingly technology-driven business environment.
The 2021 - cycle of the programme is poised to equip 300 aspiring or existing female entrepreneurs with technology skills and knowledge to improve their business productivity and profitability. In addition, the programme is also aimed at closing the digital gender gap and promote sustainable and financial empowerment for female entrepreneurs via their strategic use of technology. Each cohort runs for 4 weeks until March 2022.
The launch ceremony was held on September 6, 2021 at Impact Center, Ojodu Berger in Lagos State. In attendance were female entrepreneurs, volunteers, partner organizations and staff of W.TEC in attendance.
The high table was graced by the representative, Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation, Mr Ahmed Umar, Programme Manager, W.TEC, Mrs Maryam Abdulsalam and Executive Coordinator, AAAF, Mrs Foluke Ademokun.
The Impact Center serves as one of training venues for the programme. There are other centers in Surulere, Ajegunle and Lekki neighbourhoods of Lagos state. We will also resume virtual trainings for entrepreneurs resident across Africa.
W.TEC will be implementing this programme in partnership with Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF) & Ajoke Ayisat Afolabi Foundation ( AAAF).
e.) MakeHer Space Project Achievements
The MakeHer Space programme is on a hiatus at the moment after an incredible 1st Phase.
The MakeHer Spaces project is teaching girls from low-income communities how to create technology and engineering-based solutions that solve problems in their communities.
The pilot of the MakeHer Space ran from June to September of 2020 in a virtual format. Taking the lessons learned from the pilot, W.TEC was able to launch Phase 1 in May 2021 in Abuja, Nasarawa and Bauchi states of Nigeria.
We were excited on two counts: the first, being our ability to return to in-person programming and second, being our first multi-state project held in northern Nigeria.
In partnership with the nonprofit organisation Youth Initiative for Sustainable Human Development in Africa (YiSHDA), the MakeHer Space project has so far reached 668 girls between the ages of 10 to 25. 491 of the girls (73.5% of the total participants) are in secondary school, while 177 (26.5%) are out-of-school.
During this break, the W.TEC and YiSHDA teams have been reviewing the 1st phase and planning for Phase 2. We look forward to a bigger and more impactful second phase.
Learn more:
f.) She Creates Camp Alumnae Spotlight
Toluwani Precious Ogunbiyi is an alumnae of W.TEC's Technology Camp for Girls now called SheCreates Camp, found the camp so amazing in 2014 she returned to the camp twice as a volunteering camp instructor for the next two years. Today Toluwani is an interesting online content creator a passion she traces back from her time in camp. In this feature, she shares with us more about herself and how she has uses technology to share her passion with the world.
"I'm Toluwani Precious Ogunbiyi, I'm an agriculturist, entrepreneurs, a content creator and influencer, but most importantly, I'm passionate about God and helping people become the best versions of themselves.
So far, I've gotten excellent feedback on how much my content has inspired and motivated many. One very important thing I've learnt from this journey is. JUST DO IT!
Don't overthink the cons and all the ways it can go wrong cause that'll make you more likely to not do it at all. Taking that bold jump is the first step to infinite possibilities.
I thank W.TEC for kick starting my passion in technology and content creation. This started when I made my first video in our video production class I remember how interesting that was for me and from that day, I knew it was something I wanted to keep on doing".
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After the mostly virtual programmes of 2020, it has been energising to be able to return to in-person programming this year. However, in consideration of the ongoing pandemic, some of W.TEC's programmes are being delivered fully in-person, some programmes fully virtual and some being a hybrid of in-person and online.
Despite all the challenges, we are determined to keep innovating and adapting to our new reality, so that we can continue to serve all girls and young women.
Thank you for supporting and sharing our work. Because of you, we have been able to increase our reach and improve the quality of our programming.
Please continue to donate to our work. Also consider becoming a recurring donor and setting-up automatic monthly payments to us. We especially need your support at this time.
Together, we can keep working to build a pipeline that supports girls and women throughout their journeys from early engagement to a career in technology and sciences. We thank you and our girls thank you too.
Warm regards,
Oreoluwa Lesi
*******************
ABOUT W.TEC & THE W.TEC ACADEMY:
The W.TEC Academy is an after-school technology programme for girls in public secondary schools, designed to inspire girls to pursue computer science careers. The girls go through a year-long computing curriculum, which includes Computer Architecture & Networking, Scratch Programming, Alice Programming and Digital Arts.
The Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian nonprofit organisation committed to building a more inclusive technology ecosystem, with the next generation of women technology creators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
Links:
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