Mastercard Expands Girls4Tech Program in Asia Pacific

Due to the intended worldwide rollout, Mastercard has announced it will bring its signature Girls4Tech program back to India this August.

This will be followed by a debut in Singapore and a return to Sydney as its last stop in the Asia Pacific region.

The very manually operated, inquiry based program connects the foundations of the Mastercard business to STEM principals and shows students that it takes all sorts of interests and skills to pursue a STEM career.

In India, Mastercard will host 24 girls from the Akanksha Foundation as well as 30 girls from the Sardar Dastur Nosherwan Girls High School in their Pune office.

Also, 30 girls from the Navrachna Vidyani Vidyalaya School in Vadodara and five girls from Shrimati Kamlaben Badhir Vidyalaya, a school intended for the hearing impaired in Vadodara.

The Girls4Tech workshops in Singapore and Sydney will have a participation of 90 girls from the NPS International School in Singapore, and 140 girls from five schools in Sydney

“The Asia Pacific region is fast becoming a global hub of technology and innovation and offers an exciting range of career opportunities related to STEM fields. However, women remain consistently underrepresented in STEM careers. Furthermore, our inaugural Girls in Tech research revealed that the top reasons why girls are not considering STEM careers relate to ability and perception of gender bias. Through Girls4Tech, we hope to inspire more young girls to develop their STEM skills and build the future generation of female STEM talent,” commented Georgette Tan senior vice president, Communications, Asia Pacific.