Otago Polytechnic to become “tech heaven” for secondary schoolgirls

Otago Polytechnic will become “tech heaven” for around 40 secondary schoolgirls from Dunedin and South Otago as part of the annual ShadowTech day on Tuesday 18 June.

ShadowTech is an award-winning education programme organised by NZTech, providing schoolgirls in years 9 to 11 an opportunity to experience what working in a tech job is like, encouraging them onto education pathways that lead into tech related roles.

The regional event, hosted by Otago Polytechnic, matches girls with female mentors in the tech industry. They’ll spend the day with their mentor, learning about the wide range of tech careers available and how I.T. is used in real-world business applications, before returning to Otago Polytechnic to hear inspiring speeches by industry experts.

“We can’t wait to create tech heaven for these students and show them there’s more to technology than sitting behind a computer, writing lines of code all day” says Dr Emilie Crossley from Otago Polytechnic.

“It would be fantastic to see some of the girls who are part of ShadowTech back here in a few years, studying one of our Information Technology programmes.”

ShadowTech aims to encourage more girls to take science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) subjects at school, which can allow them to study technology at tertiary level and broaden their future career possibilities.

Read more about our I.T. programmes