Last Saturday 6 October, the G4G Day Barcelona was held at La Salle-URL. It was the second time this event had been held in Barcelona, with 200 girls aged between 11 and 15, from 55 schools in Barcelona and nearby towns taking part in workshops to promote STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
The event was organised by the international NGO Greenlight for Girls and Cisco, with the collaboration of Barcelona Activa, Indra and T-Systems. 20 interactive workshops were held throughout the day where participants were able to discover their interest in science and technology, with fun, practical workshops on a range of subjects, such as how the Internet works or how to set up a wireless network, experiments with chemicals, extracting their own DNA to put in a necklace, robotics, how to design a video game or create an App, printing a 3D accessory, and much more.
The companies that took part in these workshops are Greenlight for Girls, Cisco, La Salle Campus Barcelona-URL, Indra, Lego Education ROBOTIX, Blanquerna, IQS, Westcon-Comstor, Centre for Genomic Regulation, HP, BBVA, Submundo, HP Aruba, Nexica, Simon, Procter & Gamble and Talent Up.
The event was inaugurated with a welcome speech by Dr Guiomar Corral, Vice Dean and Director of Engineering Degrees at La Salle-URL, and Melissa Rancourt, Founder and President of g4g, also an engineer, entrepreneur and educator. Joana Barbany, Director of Digital Society at the Government of Catalonia; Neus Lorenzo, Director of Educational Transformation at the Government of Catalonia; and Xavi Massa, Public Sector Director at Cisco Spain, all took part in the morning presentations. Rosa María Rodríguez Curto, Vice President of Sales for Spain and Portugal of T-Systems Iberia, and Elisenda Escofet, Manager of Public Administrations at Indra, brought the event to a close with their presentations in the afternoon.
Since 2010, Greenlight for Girls has inspired STEM studies and careers, as well as reaching 25,500 girls from around the world, having held more than 190 events across all continents with the help of 4,800 volunteers.
Although it is estimated that between 2017 and 2022 digitalisation will create 1.25 million jobs in Spain, one in four technology firms have problems finding the qualified staff they need. In turn, only one in four workers in STEM fields are women. And while by 2020 the demand for STEM profiles will have grown by 14% in Europe and 10% in Spain, the rate of enrolment in these degrees has fallen by 25% in Europe and 40% in Spain. To reverse this trend, collaboration between administrations, training institutions and companies in the technological, scientific, industrial and financial sectors is essential.
200 girls participated in G4G Day Barcelona