South African co-working space JoziHub is partnering with Intel Corporation to stage a two-day Android app development workshop for women aged over 18, in a bid to change “the current face of tech”.
The event will take place on December 4 in Johannesburg, with 25 women invited to join in the two day event featuring Scratch and Android AppInventor workshops as well as talks from inspirational female mobile innovators.
The initiative hopes to encourage attendees to pursue a career in technology and more generally, to see the current male dominant tech environment changed to be more gender balanced.
“Statistics show that the current tech ecosystem is patriarchal in nature. Training girls in app development is an effective way of introducing them to the technological universe and a means to begin reversing the current face of tech,” Gustav Praekelt, founder of the Praekelt Foundation, told HumanIPO.
“Learning app creation will help encourage participants to pursue careers as tech creators and entrepreneurs.”
According to Praekelt, app development can be a fun and simple activity for everyone, not only development professionals, with apps able to cover a range of recreational topics and present a career opportunity for women.
“For the workshop the participants will learn how to write music apps, apps that tell your fortune, and more,” he said.
“[Women] can design more apps to address women’s issues as a niche. The app development world is their oyster!
“While there are organisations doing amazing work in this area there is still room to amplify the movement. Professional and young female talent alike needs nurturing and investment.”
