24 Apr 2012
On April 26th VHTO organises Girlsday, when firms open their doors to approximately 7,000 girls aged 10-15 years, aiming to raise their interest in a technical career at young age. Arup in Amsterdam is one of the sponsors of this national event.
Arup is inviting a group of girls for workshops and presentations in the field of lighting design, building services, structural engineering and bridge design. Guided and encouraged by female engineers, the girls will take up technical challenges. There will also be a brainstorm about prejudices towards technical professions.
Increase
It is important to increase the participation of girls and women in the education of beta, technics and ICT in the Netherlands. From an economic perspective, the country needs female technicians to deal with the current and future issues.
Masterplan Bèta and Technology
Together with the educational institutions and business corporations, the ministers of EL&I, OCW and SZW choose for an approach convincing the youngsters that a technical career holds the future. This becomes apparent from the government response to the Masterplan Bèta and Technology. Minister Marja van Bijsterveld states:
'Technics has often a bad image, unfairly. We are now connecting girls with enthusiastic technicians, men and women. We take them for a trip to firms. They can see for themselves what a technical career really looks like.'
Girlsday 2012 is organised by VHTO and was made possible by a cooperation of TechniekTalent.nu, Jet-Net and the ministry van OCW.
More information can be found on: www.girlsday.nl