Technovation Girls

Tech entrepreneurship competitions and skills for girls.

Past and Current Partners

UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition, UNESCO's Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet), Shopify, HSBC, The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, STEM Next as a part of their Million Girls Moonshot, TE Connectivity, FactSet, and Intuitive Intel.

Active Countries
120 countries
Thematic area(s)
Gender, Inclusive Growth
Technology
Open Source
Organisation Name
Technovation
READ MORE ON THEIR WEBSITE

The Problem

Technovation girls is a global tech education nonprofit that empowers girls to become leaders, creators and problem-solvers. Technovations target problem is the scarcity of female workers in the technology sector and through their program they are equiping young women (ages 8-18) to become tech entrepreneurs and leaders. With the support of volunteer mentors and parents, girls work in teams to code mobile apps that address real-world problems.

The Solution

Technovation’s digital program platform delivers the world’s largest technology entrepreneurship competition for girls (8-18) and helps equip them with skills to compete in the digital economy.

How it works?

  • Step 1: Recruitment. Technovation engages with regional partners, either community leaders or local NGOs, around the world to help implement their program on the ground. These partners conduct community outreach and participant recruitment with local schools and organizations serving disadvantaged or underrepresented youths.
  • Step 2: Registration. Participants register on Technovation's platform where they can connect with teammates and mentors and access the curriculum.
  • Step 3: Curriculum and Competition. The Technovation Girls competition is a global competition for girls to create technology-based solutions to solve real-world problems. Girls form teams of up to five girls to participate in the beginner (8-12), junior (13-15), or senior (16-18) divisions. Over a period of 12 weeks, girls engage with Technovation's online curriculum which includes age-appropriate learning modules on coding, artificial intelligence, problem-solving, and entrepreneurship.
  • Step 4: Project Submission. At the end of the competition, teams must upload a pitch and demo video of their app or AI project/prototype along with a written business plan or user adoption plan and an overview of their learning journey onto the digital platform.
  • Step 5: Judging and Community Pitch Events. Teams will go through a series of competition rounds leading up to the finals, where 15 teams (5 from each division) are chosen.
  • Step 6: Winners Announced at World Summit Celebration. Technovation hosts a World Summit celebration event in August. Each member of the 15 finalist teams receives an educational stipend. One team from each division will be chosen as the grand prize winner. There are also additional prizes celebrating outstanding apps or AI projects.
  • Step 7: Alumnae Engagement. Students who participate in Technovation Girls have access to a number of opportunities to continue their learning journey after finishing the program.
Digital X Solution Technovation Girls

Bridging the digital divide

In contrast to online-only coding education, Technovation's model combines online and offline support.  Technovation has a global network of over 125 local partners, called Chapter Ambassadors. Chapter Ambassadors work to support teams without regular internet connectivity at home by helping girls access the internet through available community resources such as local schools, libraries, or community centers. Technovation provides stipends to chapters to support efforts to bridge the digital divide such as covering costs of internet access, printing, transportation, IT equipment, software subscriptions, etc.

Impact and highlights

Over 100,000 girls from over 120 countries have participated in Technovation Girls. 76% of alumnae pursue a STEM degree. 60% work in STEM-related jobs.

Plans for expansion

"Technovation has developed a strategic plan to increase annual participants to 100,000 by 2024, to over 1M annually by 2030, and eventually engage 25M+ young women over the next 15 years. Currently, they are working with UNICEF to expand their program in Bhutan and Bangladesh. Furthermore, they are discussing with UNICEF about scaling their program in partnership with several country offices, and are in talks with Generation Unlimited in Bangladesh about a curriculum partnership this summer as they launch Imagine Ventures in 3 districts of the country. One main focus is scaling efforts to increase the number of participants in the following 16 countries: India, the US, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Philippines, Egypt, South Africa, Colombia, Kenya, Spain, Canada, and Chile. "

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