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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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
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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.
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