W.TEC Graduates over 600 Girls in ICT Skills in 14 Years

Emma Okonji

Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC), a technology skills training platform for young girls with passion for technology, has consistently trained young females in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the past 14 years. 

W.TEC, at the weekend in Lagos, graduated another 28 females in different technology skills.

This year’s training, which held at Laureates College, in Oshodi, Lagos, had 28 females in attendance who were trained in various technology skills for two weeks, bringing the total number of girls trained to 609, since 2008, when W.TEC commenced technology skills acquisition for young girls between the ages of 13 and 17 years.    

Speaking at this year’s graduation ceremony, which attracted parents and wards of the participating students, the Founder and Executive Director at W.TEC, Oreoluwa Lesi said: “The vision of W.TEC is to impact technology skills in students who are interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and to grow the minds of female students towards technology related courses.” According to her, the students were camped away from their homes, in a school with modern technology facilities and they were trained in various computer software applications and programming.

“Societal stereotype has compelled girls to begin to lose interest in technology and engineering, with the mindset that such courses are meant for males alone. W.TEC is however re-addressing that erroneous societal belief by giving girls the opportunity to develop their interest in technology and to study technology and engineering related courses.

“The girls were trained in computer software programming, software innovation, software applications and use interface design, renewable energy and basic electronics. So they are able to build power banks from locally sourced materials and laptop keyboard lights. The instructors are technology savvy people with hands-on experience as well as facilitators from W.TEC. We also invited industry-based partners from different companies that taught them on career development and financial literacy,” Lesi said.