QA, the UK’s leading tech skills and talent provider, delivered its first joint coding workshop with India-based social start-up Aspire For Her on Sunday, teaching basic coding skills to members aged between 18 to 50 with no previous tech experience. The event was a huge success with more than 270 individuals participating in the free, one-day session, beating all previous records for QA’s popular Teach the Nation to Code initiative.
Teach the Nation to Code is a programme of free training workshops designed to inspire a passion for the most sought-after digital skills, and an interest in developing a tech career. Since its inception, QA has trained more than 3,500 people to code using entry-level, Python programming language skills. Designed for complete beginners, the 8-hour, instructor-led workshop allows individuals to progress from no knowledge of programming to being able to write basic lines of code in a day. Participants completing the training receive a certificate of achievement and digital badge they can share via social media to show off their newly acquired skills.
Founder and CEO of Aspire For Her, Madhura DasGupta Sinha, explains:
"Aspire For Her has the vision to add one million women to the workforce by 2025; we motivate women to enter and stay in the workforce. By teaching our members how to code (from young college women in small towns to fifty-plus homemakers!), we know we can open up a million new career possibilities for the women of our country. The current Covid situation only serves to reinforce our conviction that we need to create a generation of financially independent women – who are confident with future skills like coding. We are delighted to partner with QA. Their vision, leadership and energy has been inspiring. We look forward to a brilliant journey of partnership and shared purpose."
Aspire For Her is a social start-up whose aim is to increase female participation in the labour force, boosting opportunities for women and the economy in India by helping women join and stay in employment. Membership includes students as well as women in mid careers or returning to careers.
Srikanth Iyengar, Chief Client Officer at QA, said:
"We were delighted with the response from Aspire For Her’s members to our first joint Teach the Nation to Code workshop. From the moment we started the session on Sunday it was clear that everybody was excited to be there. Our Teach the Nation to Code team always inspires enthusiasm in every group of learners but they really went above and beyond on Sunday, engaging every one of the record number of attendees. I was proud and humbled to be part of this inspirational experience."
QA launched Teach the Nation to Code in 2019. Since then more than 3,500 people have had the opportunity to acquire basic coding skills and an introduction to the potential of a career in tech. QA is expanding the series to include other highly sought-after digital skills such as cloud, DevOps and cyber. You can find out more information about our coding workshops here, or see a workshop in action in our latest video.
About Aspire For Her
Aspire For Her is a social start-up powered by extraordinary women leaders as mentors and role models. Its mission is to unleash the trillion-dollar opportunity in India by adding 5% to India’s GDP by 2025, by helping women join and stay in the workforce.
Aspire For Her has a rich network of women leaders, who guide and mentor the members to navigate their career path. For further information, contact Founder and CEO of Aspire For Her, Madhura DasGupta Sinha, madhura@aspireforher.org.
In response to Covid-19, Aspire For Her has launched an initiative #NotAlone for those women who have lost their life partners or parents - the main breadwinners of the family. Through this community, it will offer - peer group support - grief counselling, and emotional healing sessions with experts - advisory sessions on inheritance management related to legal, finance, insurance, and - resources to enable them to upskill, get employed, or start a business.
Individuals who would benefit, or who wish to volunteer, can sign up here.