Unlocking AI & Computer Science: free online 8-wk programme for Y12/13 girls

[JoBrodie]

This is a FREE ONLINE-only 8-week programme from King's College London academics, for Y12/13 female and non-binary students who are interested in computer science. Need to apply by end of September, series begins in early October.

King's College London (but programme is online!)
Unlocking AI & Computer Science (free)
[ Info page ] [ Registration link ]

Sessions are on:
• 3, 10, 17, 24 October
• 14, 21, 28 November, 5 December.

"Each workshop will start with a talk on AI or Computer Science from one of our researchers at King’s, followed by a short interactive activity. One week we’ll have a discussion panel, where you can ask female researchers about their experiences of working in and studying Computer Science.

We expect you to attend all eight sessions of the programme. Participants who attend at least six of the sessions will be eligible for a digital certificate of completion for the programme. Sessions will be recorded so you can catch up if you miss one.

The programme is completely free, but to take part, you’ll need to have a device that you can use to join an online webinar, such as a laptop or tablet (ideal) or a phone."

Jo

Apologies for the thread hijack.This looks great. My DD has just finished 6th form and is on a gap year. Are you in the industry or do you work for Kings. She's trying to find things to do to enhance her chances of getting an IT apprenticeship the coming year. Her Year 12 work experience fell through. This would have been great if she'd still been at school.

Hi @Matformouse I don't work at King's but there's an email address linked on the page that you could try, to explore options.

This sort of question comes up fairly often so I put together a page which has info for people still at school and for undergraduates (so it might not exactly suit your daughter but I hope it's useful):

Finding work experience or a job in computer science (CS4FN)
https://cs4fn.blog/2024/08/06/finding-work-experience-or-a-job-in-computer-science/

(I don't know much yet about the various IT Apprenticeship schemes [e.g. https://www.bcs.org/it-careers/apprenticeships/], but when I do I will add more to the CS4FN page).

I'm sort of in the biz, but not a computer scientist. I'm effectively an embedded science / tech writer for the CS4FN project in the computer science department at QMUL, writing articles for teachers and young people, contributing to classroom resources and so on. We deal more with supporting teachers in delivering the school curriculum and trying to help them make it fun (CS4FN stands for Computer Science For Fun).

Periodically I publish a list of upcoming talks and events that are aimed at a non-technical audience. I'll do another in a couple of weeks but at the bottom of this page is the list of places I trawl for events, so she might find some stuff that's going on that would be grist to her mill :)

Techy Talks for Non-techy people (public engagement with computer science)
https://teachinglondoncomputing.org/techy-talks-for-non-techy-people-public-engagement-with-computer-science/

British Computer Society (BCS) is linked there too, they're probably worth chatting to.

Jo

Oh, thank you. That is most informative. I'll point her to these links and resources. I'm afraid her college were not useful.

This looks brilliant, thank you!