Only 23% of the UK’s tech workforce is female, but this figure might change in the future thanks to the arrival of Apps for Good to the Central Foundation Girls´ School (CFGS) in East London.

The Apps for Good course inaugurates its second location in the UK at the Central Foundation Girls’ School on 15th September, after launching its first CDI Community this March at the High Trees Community Development Trust, in Tulse Hill, South London.

Apps for Good is the new programme by CDI Europe where young people learn to create apps that change their world. It is focused around solving real life issues that matter to young people or the communities they live in. During the course, young people work together to find out what issues they want to tackle, and how best to solve them with mobile and web applications. Apps for Good encourages young people to use their creativity to develop the problem solving and design skills which are extremely valuable not only in the mobile app industry, but also in today’s complex information society.

Ben Cole, Head of Community at CFGS, assures: “This is the perfect project and we are the perfect place to develop it. All the girls who applied for the course want to achieve something and they see this programme as a real opportunity for them. They see themselves as privileged kids because they are getting an education and Apps for Good has given them the chance to put their passion for technologies to the service of the community in a practical way by developing apps that will solve specific problems around them.”

More than 40 girls applied for a place on the Apps for Good course, but only 20 of them will be able to attend the course, where some of the former Apps for Good students will now be working as educators.

“It was really difficult to make the selection of students”, explains Cole, “because all of them showed a great interest, and in the end we tried to come up with a mix of skills, abilities and attitudes.”

The lessons will take place twice a week as part of the Central+ programme. Central+ is an activity project for after school hours developed by CFGS, which offers the girls the opportunity to follow different activities such as learning street dance, joining a cinema club or going horse riding, among others. “All we want is for the girls to enjoy the same opportunities as any other student in the UK”, explains Cole.

(Source:Central Digital Inclusion - CDI)

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