Django Girls is a free programming workshops for women that teaches them skills in coding and technology to help them upskill in their industry. Last weekend the program came to Brisbane and launched its first ever workshop in Australia, hosted by River City Labs. Over the weekend women learned how to build their own website right from the beginning.
MYOB has launched its new DevelopHER initiative, a 360-hour paid internship program that will help three women become software developers.
Girls Who Code, an American non-profit working to close the gender gap in the technology and engineering sector through programs that look to educate, inspire, and equip high school girls with the skills and resources to pursue opportunities in computing fields.
A national survey conducted by Student Edge has found Australian students are eager to be taught STEM skills in class and are willing to have subjects such as maths and science made compulsory throughout high school.
Melbourne startup Code the Future has launched its ambitious plan to get 10,000 Australian school students coding by the end of the year, a plan which coincides with the recent endorsement of the new Digital Technologies subject that is to be introduced into the Australian Curriculum this year.
Code Club, a worldwide network of volunteer-led coding clubs for children aged 9 to 11, has announced that it is merging with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a UK charity that makes small, affordable computers aimed at helping kids learn computing skills.
The nerd has been one of pop culture’s favourite targets over the last few decades. They’re always drawn as gangly and bespectacled, they’re socially awkward, and they never get the girl until they undergo a dramatic makeover on Beauty and the Geek. Sydney startup PT Essentials wants to set that stereotype aside by finding Australia’s fittest developer.
Australia’s Prime Minister seems to think that coding is a big waste of time. Unfortunately, this attitude is endemic in much of the conservative side of politics and only worsens the crippling skills shortage already faced by the technology sector. [Source: CodeHire.com]
It’s not so much that women only recently started coding; rather, some time in the 1980s, women stopped coding.
The tech world has been looking at how to get kids interested in coding a for a few years now, with tech stars like Mark Zuckerberg banding with celebrities such as Will.i.am and Chris Bosh to make coding an attractive idea.
However, Australian schools are still struggling to fill computing-related courses.
Sydney-based startup Coder Factory is looking to address the gender imbalance in tech with its new ‘Champions for Change’ initiative.
If you find it scary that your average 7-year old can take your credit card and max it out to to buy animals on Farmville, your worst nightmares are about to get worse. ScratchJr is the new app that teaches kids as young as five how to code and program.
“When I can walk into an office of a coding team and it’s a 50/50 split between men and women or when I have my own kids and they make up this amazing program in class as part of their core curriculum, I would feel like I’ve achieved what I’m setting out to do.”
An experienced group of coders within the community are suggesting that perhaps our startup space may prefer to throw the rod in a pond full of much younger fish.
If you’re a coder and you haven’t heard about Test-Driven Development then you may have been living under your laptop. Test-Driven Development (or “TDD” for short) is not a new concept, but it is one that is quickly becoming a mantra of the contemporary coder.
Antler just invested in 13 new startups – and nearly half have a female founder who’s also the CEO
US investor Jason Calacanis and Brisbane Angels back IT startup Tribu in $1.25 million seed round
CSIRO VC fund Main Sequence backs $3 million series A for communications compliance startup
Workforce management startup Ento closes $5m series B
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
