Making an impact through tech outreach
Making an impact with our tech outreach programmes
From April 2021 to March 2022, Kainos engaged 1400 young people through our tech outreach programmes, from work experience to CodeCamps. We are steadfast in our commitment to widening participation in technology for underrepresented communities and supporting equal access to STEM education globally.
Read more about our outreach activities and find out how we’ve helped encourage young people into the world of tech.
Throughout the year, our people have participated in a wide range of outreach activities and programmes, tallying up over 472 days of outreach!
Partnering with Speakers for Schools, a charitable organisation helping deliver access to quality work experience for young people of all backgrounds, we deliver work experience sessions for students aged 14-19 throughout the UK. From April 2021 to March 2022, we had over 1000 virtual work experience placement students who got to learn what life was like working for a top technology company. Acknowledging that women are underrepresented in the world of STEM and that young women may benefit from extra encouragement in pursuing a career in this field, we also delivered several women only work experience programmes.
30% of all our tech outreach participants identified as female, showing that there is still room to improve participation and lessen the gender gap within the technology sector. We are involved in several initiatives encouraging women to pursue STEM careers, including an initiative supported by the Northern Ireland Executive and Pulsar Women in STEM aiming to reach 1000 girls in schools across Northern Ireland. Additionally, we are helping talented young women fulfil their potential by providing £10,000 in bursaries for women from lower socio-economic and minority backgrounds studying computing at Birmingham City University.
We are members of the Bright Future Collective initiative at Queens University, Belfast, a collective of local companies who want to change lives and contribute to real change across NI by helping to make a Queen’s education accessible to everybody. Our involvement in the Bright Future Collective enables us to support some of the best talent and create life-changing opportunities for people from lower socio-economic backgrounds who are statistically underrepresented at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Working closely with Career Ready, a social mobility charity, we have 10 mentors across Northern Ireland and Birmingham who offer career advice to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are involved in the Department for Work and Pensions Kickstart scheme, helping provide job placements for 16-24 years olds at risk of long-term unemployment. We welcomed a trainee Marketing Assistant to our Birmingham office in March 2022 as part of this scheme.
We are committed to developing tomorrow’s talent, and our 2021 CodeCamp was bigger than ever before, with the platform going virtual in response to the global uncertainty around COVID-19.
We hosted 3 camps in 2 languages with 16 guest speakers, attracting over 250 attendees in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Poland, and beyond. 95% of attendees said CodeCamp improved their coding skills, and 92% of attendees stated they would consider a career in tech after their CodeCamp experience.
We’re preparing to launch CodeCamp 2022, so be sure to stay tuned for updates and information on how young people can apply for their space.
Our people make Kainos, and many of our colleagues have become mentors or been involved in outreach activities in the last year. We currently have 74 mentors throughout our organisation.
Our mentors include AWS Ambassadors who attend school events to help encourage girls aged 11-13 years old to pursue a career in tech, and mentors involved in Code Club, a global network of free coding clubs that is part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, delivering weekly classes to over 30 students to introduce them to the concept of coding. Our people have also partnered with the University of Gdansk to deliver English speaking technical language support and technical interview skills masterclasses for over 50 students.
For more on how our culture supports our people, click here.