Programming and IT seem to be the future. While there are many jobs that will disappear in the next couple of decades, we’re definitely still going to need programmers. However, the myth of IT being a typically male thing is still dominant in Poland, and way too many women don’t even consider a career in programming simply because of a silly stereotype. Coders Lab and Joanna Bochynska are encouraging women to start their adventure with programming through a series of free programming workshops called “Programuj, dziewczyno!” (Eng. Programme, girl!).

There are nine workshops in September and October in nine cities in Poland.

“We’d like to motivate girls to study programming. Many of them haven’t even thought to try themselves in coding as they believe it’s a typically male activity. However, women can be as good programmers as men are. Our workshop can help them try whether it’s something find themselves in,” says Joanna Bochyńska, who started programming at a Coders Lab course and works now as a junior front-end developer.

Why is this initiative important? Statistics prove that just thirteen percent of all IT students in Poland are women. That means that in the last decade a change practically hasn’t been noted (ten percent in 2008).

“For the last couple of years, we’ve been trying to bring more women into IT. Over thirty percent of our graduates are women, which is a very good result compared to other companies,” says Romek Lubczyński from Coders Lab.

Coder Lab workshops aim to make that happen. If you sign up, you’ll have a chance to try yourself in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Git. All you need, besides speaking English, is your own laptop.
Interested? Sign up online now.