Fairfax Media has joined the Tech Girls Movement to celebrate International Women's Day and launch the 2016 Tech Girls Are Superheroes campaign at Google.
The Tech Girls Movement is a non-profit organisation, which promotes opportunities afforded by careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) through storytelling.
As part of the campaign, national competition Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero, challenges Australian female students to build an app prototype that will make their community a better place.
The winning team has the chance to fly to San Francisco to attend Silicon Valley's global Technovation app pitch challenge.
Tech Girls Movement founder Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen said the program was deliberately designed to be online so it could reach girls in regional areas.
“We often have programs, but we don’t have them in regional areas,” she said.
“I really wanted to engage young people from other places to show they can also get the same skills and compete with those who come from the city.”
“I wanted to engage young people from other places to show they can also get the same skills and compete with those who come from the city.”
- Program founder Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen
Fairfax Media chief information officer Robyn Elliott said Fairfax was focused on fostering a more diverse and equal workforce across all parts of its business, particularly in technology.
"Diversity brings innovation and creativity, which ultimately drives better decision-making and leads to improved company performance," she said.
"By supporting the Tech Girls Movement we have the opportunity to connect with and inspire the next generation of technology leaders."
The second edition of the Tech Girls Are Superheroes book was released on Tuesday, following the success of the first edition released in 2014 and distributed free to more than 20,000 students across Australia.
Google Australia engineering community and outreach manager Sally-Ann Williams said it was important girls were introduced to computer science and coding early to overcome stereotypes that exist.
To find out more, visit www.techgirlsmovement.org
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