#BeMe campaign aims to inspire one million BME girls to get into STEM
Academy Achievers Founder and CEO, Paulette Watson, is calling for investment in the groundbreaking #BeMe campaign, which seeks to get one million BME girls engaged in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
There has been an increased in women applying for IT roles across the UK (326,000) and now make up a record 20% share of the specialist IT workforce. What's more, the proportion of women in specialist computing roles increased to its highest ever level this summer, rising to 20% from 17% at the same point in 2019. Since the past year, there has also been a slight increase in the percentage of black women working in IT positions, from 0.3% in 2019 to 0.7% in 2020, according to BCS' study based on office for National Statistics (ONS) employment data. Yet still, black women are still heavily under-represented in IT and this is worrying.
Without a stronger global commitment to diversity and inclusion, companies will continue to miss out on — or lose — talent that could bolster their business performance, and ultimately, their profit margins. Until now, there hasn't been a strong enough drive to change this.
The #BeMe campaign: helping BME girls pursue STEM careers
#BeMe's focus is to help one million BME girls engage with a career in STEM. It fully supports the UN's Sustainable Development goals, contributing to five of the 17 in total by helping achieve gender equality and empower black women in technology through five pillars of focus: Education; Entrepreneurialism; Innovation: Mental Health (Well being) and Social Inclusion.
Paulette Watson says: "We want to create a pipeline of STEM opportunities for these girls, helping the ecosystem become more inclusive and supportive of underrepresented groups and communities, by being ambassadors in the spaces and helping others come into it fully."
Real difference for real change
#BeMe is asking for £16,750 worth of start-up capital as an initial investment to help secure a strategic marketing campaign. This investment would also help with setting up a podcast, where girls will be able to create content and present and invite female black leaders (in tech careers) to talk about their career journeys and create an online mentoring platform that will speak to black girls and equip them for the world of work. All three elements of this initial campaign will help to address key issues such as AI bias, participation in STEM subjects and deal and counteract oppressive algorithms.
In addition to fundraising for £16,750, #BeMe is asking for their story to be heard. You can do this by sharing the #BeMe campaign on social media and raising awareness of the importance of getting BME girls to engage with STEM. Just reading about the topic alone will not solve the digital exclusion that BME girls experience, but it is a step in the right direction of raising awareness to these career injustices.
For more information, contact Paulette Watson at Academy Achievers on info@academyachievers.co.uk.
- Ends -
About: Academy Achievers works with children and young people aged 5-19 who are disaffected, disadvantaged, vulnerable and have experienced trauma. Black people make up 13% of the population in London, but only 3% of the technology industry's employees are black. Over the last five years, Academy Achievers has been at the forefront of pushing STEM careers and projects, having noticed that current STEM pathways exclude a disproportionate amount of young people from certain backgrounds.