Sisters of Code continues to bring free educational programs to the female students in Cambodia and starts new groups in September 2021 engaging Sisters of Code Ambassadors as trainers. We are really pleased to see that female students' interest in learning technology has grown by 57% over the previous year.
In just 2 weeks 316 applications were received to join the new Sisters of Code club groups!
Due to the Covid - 19 pandemic, we deliver our program online thus reaching a wider audience across the country. If previously Sisters of Code clubs were accepting students mainly from Phnom Penh, this time we have received applications from 17 different locations, including Phnom Penh, Kompong Thom, Siem Reap, Kampong Speu, Kompot, Takeo, Ratanakkiri, Prey Veng, Stung Treng, Battambang, Kompong Cham, Sihanoukville, Krojes, Kandal Province, Pusat Province, and Banteay Meanchey. We even received an application from a Cambodian female student who was awarded a scholarship to study in China and was interested in participating in our program.
Only 45 students can be accepted to join the program in September online and the selection process included motivational interviews and interest to study technology. We can accept only 1 out of 6 applicants to join the program, which was a very difficult decision for the Sisters of Code team. We would like to congratulate the selected students, who will be personally contacted for the further steps to register and start our studies with the internationally awarded educational program to learn coding, game development, and website creation, as well as will receive training in presentations and personal consultation for the future career path.
Students will be studying in 3 groups on Saturdays and Sundays. The lessons will start on September 4 and will be delivered online. Trainers for those groups are our Sisters of Code Ambassadors, that have been trained on our course curriculum, soft skills, and leadership qualities as mentors. One group will be delivered in partnership with Happy Chandara NGO school.
The age of the applicants to join Sisters of Code is very diverse:
only 3% of applications are young: 10 to 13 y.o.
33% between 14 and 17 y.o.
while the majority (59%) are 18 - 21 y.o.
we have also received interest from 2% of students under the age of 10 and 3% of students older than 21.
It is important to note that 51% of applicants are studying at schools and 49% are university students. Most of the university students are studying at the foundation or first year, majoring in Information Technology and Computer Sciences. They mention that our program is the most effective way to enhance their coding skills and boost their confidence in their ability to succeed at University. Due to the fact that most of their University peers are male, they feel they are being left out just because they are female. Sisters of Code is a female community of girls interested in technology who can study together, share ideas, and work together to build new projects and support female students.
In terms of motivation, 69% of applicants want to learn coding skills, 16% want to learn more about computers and 7% want to discover career opportunities in IT. Also, 7% stated they want to get experience with our international curriculum.
Inspired by the current mentorship program with Solve - MIT, Sisters of Code team is working on further initiatives to give more opportunities to female students in Cambodia wishing to learn technology, so follow our news! Thanks to IT Academy STEP Cambodia for launching this initiative to give Cambodian female students the opportunity to learn an international coding curriculum for free.