Azerbaijani Women in ICT Club – FEMMES DIGITALES held its first meeting in 2016 in Baku. Traditionally, each meeting of the Club is hosted by one of its members.
This time the meeting was hosted by one of the founding members of the Club – Ms. Nigar Arpadarai, the press-secretary and head of marketing & communications department of Baku Grand Prix, the organizer of Formula-1 in Baku, at the premises of Baku Grand Prix.
During the meeting the founder of the Club and B.EST Solutions LLC, Mrs. Jana Krimpe shared the plans of the Club for the first half of 2016.
According to her, the Club is currently negotiating with the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan regarding organization of meetings with the girls studying at 9-11 classes in secondary schools with the aim to stimulate them to continue their higher education and build their future career in ICT. The initial phase provides for holding meetings in Baku, but it would be desired to arrange such meetings in the regions of the country and in remote villages as well as with the students of high schools across the country. At the same time, there are plans to conduct a research of the girls studying or working in ICT sector in order to be able to define statistics of female employment in ICT as well as to eliminate stereotypes and fears preventing girls from occupancy in this sector. The Club sets a goal to demonstrate how fascinating, versatile and demanded sphere ICT is, in the examples of the women and girls successfully working in the ICT sphere in Azerbaijan.
Another founder of the Club, the marketing manager of Microsoft for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Belarus, Ms. Sabina Parvizi informed the participants about the project “Technovation” which provides for organization of software coding trainings for girls. The members of the Club decided to participate in this project next year; however the preparations will already be started this year.
The participants also discussed the organization of the traditional event – Girls in ICT Day and ICT Week in April this year in close cooperation with ADA University and collaboration with relevant government institutions.