Non-profit ICT skills development organisation GirlCode has collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Ericsson to introduce its latest annual hackathon, #GirlCodeHack.
GirlCode was founded in 2014 as a female-only hackathon in a male-dominated industry. The event has since expanded, with this year's hackathon expected to attract over 300 participants.
The social enterprise, which aims to empower young girls and women through tech skills, says its vision is to impact 10 million women across Africa in 10 years, starting with getting young girls interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and to become the largest female digital academy.
It aims to do this through strategic partnerships with the public sector, strengthening collaboration with similar organisations, and leveraging corporate assets in the development of ICT facilities, infrastructure and networks within schools in disadvantaged communities.
The GirlCode Hackathon, supported by the Innovation Hub, Workshop 17, RS Components and others, will take place on 3and 4 August in Cape Town and Pretoria, respectively.
Zandile Keebine, co-founder of GirlCode, says GirlCodeHack has developed into the largest all-female hackathon in SA.
“It’s amazing to see how much the GirlCodeHack initiative has grown. Looking back to 2014, we only had 30 girls in Pretoria and it seems unreal that we have grown so much in such a short space of time, having hosted the hackathon in three cities with over 300 female tech students.
“The reason we started the hackathons was to create awareness and build a community around programming. We believe we have achieved this over the years and would like to focus our resources to now teaching girls programming skills through our other initiatives,” explains Keebine.
The hackathon is open to students who are studying towards an IT-related degree, or recent graduates with less than two years’ work experience.
It promises to bring together emerging software developers, graphic designers, user interface designers and business analysts, and inspire them to develop creative and tech-savvy digital solutions based on the theme, “technology as an enabler to tackle the UN Sustainable Development Goals”.
As part of last year’s #GirlCodeHack prizes, participants received Udemy vouchers, allowing access to the online learning platform that offers various technical courses.
“With my Udemy voucher I was able to get eight courses. Last year, I did database and Linux, which helped me a lot in preparing for database and operating systems exams. Over the festive season I started Android and Raspberry Pi, which is going to help me with my final project, which we are expected to do after the internship,” says Neliswa Khumalo, one of the 2018 GirlCodeHack winners.
“GirlCodeHack has also become a platform for companies to recruit female tech talent and so we are always excited to partner with as many companies as possible to help make the event a success,” notes Keebine.
Sponsorship packages are still open for companies looking to make an impact in driving the young female towards technology-related skills.
Advocate Pieter Holl, CEO of The Innovation Hub, adds:” We are proud and honoured to be hosting the #GirlCodeHack in collaboration with GirlCode, Ericsson and AWS. This event has gotten the attention of so many females in the tech industry.
“We are looking forward to seeing the talent and creativity of all of the participants and the incredible solutions that they will come up with to solve challenges that have been put forward to assist to help make the world a better place.”
Tickets for GirlCodeHack are available through Quicket at R50. For more information on how to apply, visit the GirlCode Web site.