The Tech Life Project takes Year 6 girls to Xero & Trade Me HQ

Last weekend five Year 6 Christchurch Girls were treated to an inside look into tech success stories Trade Me and Xero, in an interactive and educational experience highlighting that women are more than capable of bringing their value and skills to New Zealand's IT industry.

The five girls flew to Wellington for the digital education experience of a lifetime as part of The Tech Life Project, which is a project by Trade Me, Xero, and software development company Global Office.

Parents and caregivers accompanied the group, along with Chris Tacon, and Christchurch-based digital technology teacher Mandy Dempsey who has been assisting with the project.

Global Office director, Chris Tacon, says he wants to see more diversity in the industry, noting that women are currently greatly underrepresented. A 2017 report released by the Ministry for Women found that only 23% of Kiwis employed in digital technology were women.

"Like Trade Me and Xero, we would like our learning opportunity in Wellington to inspire the selected young women to continue their interest in technology and consider it as a career option in the future," says Tacon.

"The time to capture their attention is now.

Hoon Hay School pupil Anya Hotter says the experience was exciting and inspiring. "I liked seeing how they clean data at Xero, that was really interesting. I've used Python before so it was really cool to see them using it and seeing what it does.

Trade Me also provided an interactive demonstration of product development – which was easily one of the highlights from the trip. Each girl had to come up with a set of clear instructions for constructing an edible cookie, a fun (and delicious) way of showing how algorithms work in product development.

The girls met and heard from women who work at Trade Me and Xero who had inspiring stories to share.

Bromley School pupil Milla Nutira-Androshuk said, "There were way more girls than I thought there would be.

Global Office sponsored the all-expenses paid trip to Wellington.