BENGALURU: To give a boost to career opportunities, an initiative has been launched to train 1.2 lakh girl students from 800 government schools across Karnataka in developing a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) mindset.
The initiative -- Hackathon -- was jointly launched by Quest Alliance and IBM. In the first year, it will cover 68,272 students in seven districts -- Chikkaballapura, Bengaluru, Hassan, Chitradurga, Raichur, Gadag and Yadgir.
Over the last two years, Quest Alliance has been experimenting on a small scale with 1,000 students in nine states. “We have been successful in helping girl students ideate and create products, which has also helped them interact with the community and expand their skill set,” said Neha Parti, director, schools programme, Quest Alliance.
Its CEO Aakash Sethi said the ‘Hackathon’ for girls will help train students to become problem solvers. It will also help in countering the prevailing gender stereotypes and encourage girls to engage with and discover their potential within STEM. Manoj Balachandran, head (CSR), IBM India/South Asia, said the aim of the ‘Hackathon’ was to bring diversity and inclusion and increase the percentage of girls actively pursuing careers in technology.