CompTIA Acquires Middle School-Focused TechGirlz to Broaden Outreach
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 04/02/19
One
technology workforce-development non-profit has absorbed another.
Recently, Creating
IT Futures,
a charity within CompTIA,
the IT industry association, has acquired TechGirlz,
which focuses on helping middle school girls gain a love for
technology and consider jobs in robotics, digital media and other
areas through volunteer-led workshops. Creating IT Futures does
research and program development to encourage people — especially
those in non-traditional groups — to pursue IT careers.
The
idea is that the combination will help the smaller organization scale
its impact and help the larger organization create a "continuous
path of technology prep " that begins in middle school and
proceeds into the work years. Research by Creating IT Futures has led
it to target middle school as a "prime age" to spur
interest in tech jobs.
TechGirlz
said its workshops have reached some 15,000 female students and
succeed because coverage of the subjects is designed specifically to
appeal to this age group and then refined with feedback from
participants. Creating IT Futures said it intends to use TechGirlz’s
best practices for technology curriculum development and engaging
middle schoolers into other programs.
As
part of the deal, TechGirlz's team and operations will be integrated
into Creating IT Futures as a separate entity running from its
current location in Philadelphia. Creating IT Futures will also take
over and continue management of the current TechGirlz capital
campaign,
which hopes to fund outreach to an additional 5,000 girls by 2020.
"As
the technology industry continues to search for ways to teach tech
and fill open jobs, we are committed to launching a bottom up effort
that will create a swell of talent," said Charles Eaton, CEO of
Creating IT Futures, in a statement. "More than any other
organization, TechGirlz has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to
inspire and teach middle school girls to do more than just code. We
are thrilled to apply our institutional knowledge to help rapidly
scale this proven model and grow even larger pools of future
technologists."
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.