Over 80 girls registered for code programme 2024 – OPM outreach officer

The Office of the Prime Minister’s Industry & Innovation Unit Guyanese Girls Code Programme 2024 has already seen a high number of females registering early.
This is according to Outreach Officer at the Office of the Prime Minister’s Jennifer Persaud, who said that that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is rapidly growing in Guyana. On this point, Persaud noted that the programme which was developed by the Office of the Prime Minister, the Industry and Innovation Unit is geared towards encouraging more women to be a part of the technological revolution in the country.
“We do know that ICT is on a move, we see what’s happening overseas, we also see what’s happening here within Guyana and the Government of Guyana and what they are continuing to do, we do know that we have more work to do within the sector and this is one way we can ensure that girls be a part of the change and also urge them to study and understand that we cannot run away for ICT. It’s there to stay,” she said during a recent broadcast of the EdYou FM programme.
Moreover, Persaud highlighted the support the programme has received over the years, she further disclosed that a number of participants have already secured their spot for this year’s version of the programme.
“You saw the number of women or young girls or females that participated in the programme, just today I had a conversation with someone on the phone they said they saw the flyer and they want to know ‘I am 22 can I participate’ and I said yes, we’re not refusing you. We posted the ad last week that we’re opening the online cohort and we already had about 89-100 females already registered,” she stated.
Meanwhile, this year’s edition of the programme will commence on July 20 and will cover a variety of topics such as such as problem solving, design thinking and Programming with Scratch among others.
The aim of the programme is to increase the number of Guyanese women in Guyana’s ICT sector by teaching young girls to code/programme in order to empower them to innovate and create the technology that can change their world. Applicants are not required to have previous experience coding/programming but must be proficient computer users. The programmes align with Guyana’s Sustainable development goals four and five which deals with gender equality and quality education.