Initiative to boost numbers of black women in tech launched

The Black Codher coding bootcamp will give BAME women in the West Midlands the opportunity to gain skills and opportunities in a highly competitive industry

OPPORTUNITIES: The Black Codher programme is seeking to support aspiring black female coders and programmers

IN RECENT years diversity reports produced by tech giants such as Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have revealed one consistent fact about the industry as a whole – that the coders, engineers, and data scientists that drive it are overwhelmingly white and male. 

Now, one initiative is taking steps to try and change this.

Opportunities

Birmingham based start ups Nivo Enterprise and Coding Black Females have launched a programme called The Black Codher aimed at helping unemployed black and minority ethnic (BAME) females in the West Midlands get opportunities to work in the tech industry. 

TECH BOOTCAMP: (from left to right) Black Codher founders Oyinkansola Adebayo, Olaoluwa Dada and Charlene Hunter

The Black Codher, which has been launched with £250,000  funding from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) is a part time coding bootcamp run twice a week in the evening for 30 weeks between 6pm and 9pm in Birmingham. 

The coding bootcamp is open to 40  black females aged 18-35, who are unemployed or in low skilled employment.

It is an intense course where learners with little to no tech background will be armed with technical skills, providing women on the course to learn various technical skills such as software programming, data management and analytics, design thinking, Blockchain, AI and Machine Learning.

Tech skills

At the end of the course not only will participants be armed with a range of tech skills they will also have the opportunity to get a job with one of the companies connected to the project.

The Black Codher was launched when the founders of two companies, Coding Black Females and Nivo Enterprises decided to extend what was a 1-hour class to a coding bootcamp at the latter company’s annual Beyond Hair Summit 2020.

Olaoluwa Dada, Programme Manager for the Black Codher Team told The Voice: “Black Codher is a way for black women who have always been curious about technology to explore their chosen career and make a good income. 

Empowerment

“This is not just a tech programme, Black Codher will provide empowerment days providing examples of inspiring individuals as role models to look to, as they embark on the journey of learning a high-demand skill.”

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