Over 5,000 students attended two workshops in Dublin and in Cork hosted by the I Wish initiative to encourage female secondary school students to choose careers in fields of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
DCU has partnered with the initiative and representatives from the university’s CASTeL and the Lego Innovation Education Studio talked to teachers about the new Teach IT programme. This programme aims to improve teachers’ skills at advising students about their future careers.
“They want a career which has a world purpose – they get it in the fields of medicine but only 16 per cent choose physics – because they cannot relate physics to a job with ‘purpose’,” I Wish state on their website.
“Rather than fight against this, we are going to work with it,” the initiative added.
The I Wish initiative was founded in 2015 collectively by Gillian Keating, Caroline O’Driscoll and Ruth Buckley.
The annual I Wish conference began three years ago and consists of workshops, keynote speakers and talks by women who are top in their fields of work. This year’s speakers included Dearbhail McDonald from INM, Yvonne Holmes from AIB, Karen Egan from VM Ware and Norah Patten from the International Space University.
DCU’s representatives also hosted a discussion on the challenges that prevent female secondary school students from choosing to study STEM courses at third level.
Gabija Gataveckaite