Mastercard has declared the growth of its Girls4Tech, Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) education programme in India. The Girls4Tech programme aims to encourage girls to discover a range of STEM careers, such as data scientist, software engineer, and fraud detective.

In order to encourage students toward STEM education, the programme expansion aims to reach an extra one lakh female students across the nation by 2024. The STEM courses will be delivered to girls between the age of 8 to 14, which comprises 14,400 students in Delhi and onboard 40 additional government schools.

Starting as hands-on, in-person interactive sessions directed by employee volunteers, the programme has achieved more students by expanding access to its STEM curriculum through the programme’s online resources.

Through the website- Girls4Tech Connect, teachers and parents can easily download lessons to help students learn about STEM topics, including fraud detection, encryption, digital convergence, and data analysis, from home or anywhere in the world. The curriculum includes topics such as AI and cybersecurity. Curriculum topics are available in Hindi, Malay, Portuguese, English, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, French, and Polish.

To handle the challenge and pique girls’ interest in science and technology fields- Mastercard joined hands with the American India Foundation (AIF) to facilitate girls to take up STEM education and train for jobs of the future to restrict the gender gap.

Country Director of the American India Foundation, Mathew Joseph, said the under-representation and disparity of women in STEM are outcomes of social biases and expectations, affecting the quality of education they obtain and the subjects they study. The absence of female leaders and role models in STEM is also a barrier and one of the key drivers behind the gender gap in labour market success. American India Foundation is committed to intervening steps that focus on drawing the attention of young girls toward STEM subjects, and our collaboration with Mastercard on Girls4Tech is one such step.

Vice President of Social Impact, Asia Pacific, Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth, Subhashini Chandran, said that even though more women are required in the workforce, they continue to confront several challenges, especially in India’s semi-urban and rural areas. One is a general perception that the tech industry is monopolized by men.

As a result, girls do not receive adequate encouragement to seek STEM disciplines at school or university. Through the Girls4Tech programme, Mastercard aims to support the Government’s idea to construct more opportunities for women in the workforce by encouraging young girls and women to pursue STEM education which will allow them to prepare for jobs of the future.

In 2020-21, the programme reached around 112,482 girls in urban and rural locations across six Indian states, including 10,000 across Delhi. Even as science and technology continue to be the next frontiers of development for countries and organizations, a considerable gender gap remains in these fields.