Code First Girls

How Olivia is inspiring women to code

Olivia Moore, back-end-developer at Apexon, recently began volunteering as a teacher for Code First Girls, a social enterprise dedicated to encouraging more women to explore careers in tech and learn how to code.  

After studying computer science at the University of Hull and being one of the few females on the course, Olivia became passionate about encouraging women to get involved in tech. That’s when she stumbled across the Code First Girls initiative and began following their work whilst studying. 

Once Olivia began working in the tech sector at Apexon, she decided to get involved herself and signed up to volunteer as a teacher, supporting women who – more often than not – feel like they can’t see themselves in such a male dominated industry. 

“It’s disheartening that so many women can’t see themselves in tech, as it presents so many opportunities to those wanting to challenge themselves and hone their skills. It didn’t bother me that I was one of the few girls on my course at university, but I wanted to help more women get involved in tech. 

Once I came back to the North East to work for Apexon, I volunteered myself for the Code First Girls fellowship programme. It’s me and 30 other girls from around the country, teaching languages such as Python, web development and SQL. I teach new starters how to code, as well as how they can get into the industry, hosting weekly 1–2-hour sessions.”
–Olivia Moore

Women are still the minority in tech

According to a recent 2021 report from Tech Nation, 49.8% of workers in the labour market as a whole are women, but in tech, women only make up 25.5% of the workforce. This imbalance is thought to be caused by a number of factors, including the lack of women taking STEM subjects to an advanced level. STEM Women said the overall percentage of female graduates in the UK with core STEM degrees is steadily growing, however, the split is still just 26%. This is also shown in the STEM workforce, with women only making up 24%. 

Code First Girls is on a mission to address this imbalance of women in the tech industry through educational opportunities and by providing connections with top employers. 

Code First Girls is dedicated to transforming the tech industry

Since launching in 2015, Code First Girls has taught in excess of 25,000 women how to code for free and has connected them with more than 50 top employers. 

We’re proud to have Olivia Moore working here at Apexon. Her dedication to not only her professional role as a back-end-developer, but also to teaching other women to code and find success in the tech industry is truly inspiring. 

Here at Apexon, we’re also working hard to encourage more girls to get involved in coding. Our programme, 0Gravity, was set up a couple of years ago to inspire the next generation about the opportunities available in digital and tech, so they can hone their skills from a young age. We have now trained more than 45 young people, and last year’s programme welcomed the highest proportion of young girls yet, with seven of the 10 young people taking part being female. 

To find out more about 0Gravity, please visit www.0Gravity.org.