Dive Brief:
- Nonprofit organization MotherCoders has teamed up with Google to bring free tech training to moms in New York City as part of the Women.nyc initiative.
- The part-time, nine-week program is aimed at college-educated moms with some work experience who want to re-enter the workforce, start a business or change careers. Onsite professional childcare is provided during the courses.
- MotherCoders tuition usually costs $4,500 with childcare — $4,000 without — but Google is covering the cost of this program, according to MotherCoders.
Dive Insight:
Google's parent company Alphabet is coincidentally looking to double its NYC staff over the next 10 years, an addition of around 12,000 employees. With 25,000 jobs also set to enter the region from Amazon's new headquarters, many of which will be technology jobs, adding more developers to the talent pipeline now is a strategic move.
MotherCoders launched three years ago and this is the first time it's offering support outside of the San Francisco area. In addition to learning how to code, the programs teach tech industry knowledge and trends, offer workshops and provide company visits.
Women are an underrepresented group in the tech industry and this program can help to level the playing field. Working mothers are even more underrepresented for a variety of reason, not the least of which is trying to keep up with the rapid changes in the tech industry while taking time off to raise a child — which women are 10 times more likely than men to do.
After bringing these women into the tech workforce, employers will have to combat factors that frequently push women to leave technology, including a lack of career trajectory, slow salary growth and poor management.
While the technology industry is steadily increasing the women and diversity in its ranks, many fields continue to fall short of national averages.
MotherCoders prides itself on being inclusive of women from all backgrounds. Google, a company that is sometimes criticized for its homogeneity, is demonstrating a commitment to greater diversity and homogeneity by footing the bill for the program. But Google still has work to do to make its workplace an equal and inclusive environment for many women.
