What is your diversity tech initiative? Please provide an overview.
My diversity technology initiative is trying to get more women into technology, particularly from lower-income areas and in the North-East of England. I work with a series of groups from Girls Who Code to Cyber Girls First to help deliver workshops for coding to females across the globe. Alongside delivering workshops I have organised the first Cyber Girls First event in Newcastle, where we invited 50 children from low-income area schools in Newcastle to attend a day of technology-based workshops, one of which I delivered. The workshops were held by females in technology, most of which based in Newcastle or Sunderland to show the girls that you don’t have to be based down South to pursue a career in technology. The girls were all aged between 11 and 14 and so were targeted before their GCSE’s/A-Levels to help them consider a Computer Science qualification. Besides this, I am an active member of the Accent on Gender group at work where I work closely with other members of staff to strive for gender equality in the workplace. As a part of this I am the lead organiser of a female coaching programme we are looking to introduce to help build confidence in women in the workplace to drive for better representation within more senior roles in the company.
How did your initiative come to fruition?
My initiative began when I joined Accenture as a software engineering apprentice and realised the lack of female representation within the business. Despite the number of people studying computer science, the percentage of females studying it is decreasing and we can see this among the statistics, with a staggering 19% of the technology workforce being women. When exploring the potential reasons behind this, I came to realise one of the key factors of this is the lack of understanding and the misconceptions of a career in computer science. The main force of my work is situated within schools, so we can target a younger audience to educate them on what a career in technology really means and what it involves, and to correct any stereotypes surrounding it. This is when I discovered Cyber Girls First, a charity that aims at getting more women into computing and cybersecurity by targeting them before they select GCSE options, to drive more females studying the subject from a younger age. Since working with the charity, I have discovered the true gender gap within the business, and often get asked questions from students such as “Is coding just for boys”, highlighting the underlying issue we are faced with in the industry. This drives me to continue my work to help educate young people, whilst also holding international workshops for older females who wish to enter the industry to help upskill them on technical areas such as coding. The drive is also enforced in the workplace upon speaking to female colleagues, who often thought their career progression was impacted from personal reasons such as maternity leave, therefore I realised I can help their career progression by enforcing confidence and self-development from coaching to encourage and support females within the workplace.
Why do you think you have been nominated for this award?
I think I have been nominated for this award as I have made a large impact by getting involved in numerous strands of work for my technology initiative in the two years of my career whilst balancing my job and bachelor’s degree. I have not only been an active participant of these strands, but I have organised and lead Cyber Girls First event, which was a huge success, and I am currently in the process of organising another, with many more to come! Aside from this I am also leading the coaching programme initiative within the workplace and upskilling myself in my soft skills to be able to deliver workshops to females of all ages, from all backgrounds to educate them in the technology area. By working with charities, I have been able to have a large outreach, which I hope to be ever-growing and I have hopefully made a positive impact on the communities I work with.
Besides the organisation of the events I have thoroughly enjoyed every task I have picked up, and I feel even more motivated to continue my work in the sector on a larger scale and hopefully make a huge impact on the technology industry, where I can introduce more women, especially minorities, from low-income areas into technology as I believe this will change the future of the industry.
What impact you have had on your target audience?
I hope out of the large crowds I have made a difference, not just by encouraging females into the sector of technology but by educating them a bit more on the industry and what a job within the industry looks like, despite all the misconceptions. The workshops can also be a base point for women that wish to pursue an interest in technology, for example the beginner coding workshops can be that initial push into learning how to code which can be the start of a career for many women. The drive within the North East especially impacts the percentage of females in the area studying computer science and therefore creates an increase of qualified females, hopefully then increasing the number of women able to apply for technical jobs. As a result, the end goal is to have a higher female representation across many businesses in their technology sector, especially in the North East. The work we do impacts females of all ages in different stages of their career, showing the drive isn’t from just one angle but from a selection of angles hoping to create that inclusivity into my work.
I have had many conversations with school girls where they have told me they didn’t even consider computer science as an option until we educated them, and by continuing to hold Cyber Girls First events here, and across the country, we can continue to deliver that message to hopefully a large crowd of aspirational females across the country (and potentially internationally!).
Please provide an endorsing statement from someone who can support this nomination (Max. 500 words)
Accenture Manchester ran an event at their offices in 2022, and Accenture Newcastle requested an event for schools in their area. We held a Zoom call with the relevant people, and we were extremely fortunate that Yasmin Ameli-Zamani volunteered to help. She became the point of contact for me, and was outstanding in her delivery of the event. She found people to do specific tasks, such as contacting the schools who might want to attend, obtained a £2,000 grant from Accenture to pay the costs, found a suitable venue at a reduced cost (Newcastle Foundation Football Club Centre), organised the lunches to suit all diets and religious requirements, brought in people from Accenture and Microsoft to help with assigned tasks, did an excellent presentation to the girls, set up a competition for each school to redesign Cyber Girls First Home Page on their website, and organised the delivery of t-shirts, goody-bags and water-bottles from our base in Bletchley. Whatever the problem, it was never too much of a problem, even though she was also dealing with her assigned work at Accenture, and her university work. On the day of the event, she ran everything and dealt with each problem with a smile. She’s a born Project Manager.
Putting on a Cyber Girl First event is always a challenge but, from the first Zoom call with Yasmin, I knew we were on safe ground. All I heard was “I can do that”, which she did in a most efficient way. She brought a team of women to the table, to help with the many agenda items which go to make the event a success, especially contacting the schools and finding the appropriate members of staff to organise the girls. She became the Project Manager and I knew we were in capable hands. She already has a list of schools at the ready for another event in the Autumn term, and she made it easy for me. Lady Parmley, who accompanied me to Manchester and Newcastle, said ‘We need a Yasmin for every event.’ And I second that! She did everything with a smile. It was our 45th event in England and Wales in nine years, and she was outstanding.
– Pat Ryan (Founder of Cyber Girls First)
