Blue{shift} Education, London’s top provider of coding camps and after-school clubs, today announce their first ever all-female summer camp: the fun and innovative DIY Girls.

Confidence, creativity, and coding are three major elements of all blue{shift} coding camps this summer, and so for the first time will be offering a girls-only camp aimed at ages 10–14. DIY Girls will empower campers to explore diverse techniques ranging from 3D printing jewellery to creating Javascript games, hopefully sparking a deeper interest in computer science and robotics.

Part of blue{shift}’s mission is to make coding an inclusive subject. Though they believe that computer science is for all, current female enrollment numbers within the field do not reflect this. A survey conducted by the Royal Society showed that only 11% of students study Computing at GCSE level and only 20% of these students are girls. This gap only increases as girls age, with the percentage of girls taking Computing at A Level dropping to just 9%.

By incorporating the more artistic and expressive elements of STEAMeducation with DIY Girls, the aim of the course is to encourage those girls who might have felt alienated or intimidated by STEM-based activities in the past; not least because they might often have been the only girl in the room!

Blue{shift} founder Heather Lyons reveals why she created the course. She said, “By running a camp that focuses on the more creative aspects of coding, we hope that girls learn and feel like coding is a tool for them to express themselves. Our goal is that girls will realise that programming is more than just gaming. Code is about making.”

She added, “We want this camp to create a community of girls where they feel empowered and a place where they can get together with our teachers, who are themselves experts in the field. At the end of the week, we want every girl to walk away seeing the possibilities of code and having the confidence to put it in action.”

If you know a coder who is interested in joining DIY Girls this summer 30 July to 10 August, please visit www.blueshiftcoding.com or email us at hello@blueshiftcoding.com.