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GM and Girls Who Code partnership fosters female engineering talent

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By John Glenday, Reporter

January 23, 2017 | 2 min read

Vehicle manufacturer General Motors (GM) has teamed up with Girls Who Code, a nationwide after-school program, in a bid to foster a new generation of female engineering talent.

GM, Girls Who Code

GM and Girls Who Code partnership fosters female engineering talent

GM chief executive Mary Barra is championing the initiative by funding it to the tune of $250,000, enabling the non=profit group to expand its free after-school program in schools, universities and community centres.

Barra is herself one of just 22 women to lead a Fortune 500 firm and has been a leading proponent in helping others to achieve the same by signing up GM to a host of initiatives aimed at promoting diversity and female leadership.

Explaining this approach, Barra said: “But what’s so important with Girls Who Code is to build that pipeline even before they get to high school to take the college programs that create more coding engineers.“

A major stumbling block to such initiatives is the lack of girls aged 13 to 17 studying maths and science, shrinking the pool of available talent to employers. In an effort to redress this imbalance GM are aiming to reach 100,000 girls directly.

Last year Girls Who Code launched a humorous advertising campaign which tackled the stigma women can face head-on.

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