Nerissa Golden
Thursday, April 17, 2014
For the third year in a row, Montserrat will be encouraging girls to consider careers in the field of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs).
Girls Can is the local theme for Girls in ICT Day, which is celebrated internationally on Thursday, April 24.
Montserrat’s National ICT Council has been spearheading the plans, which included a one-week course on mobile movie making for girls in grades five up to the community college level. The course taught by Andre Crichlow of Pudgy Productions Trinidad looked at how ICT tools already in their possession can be used to tell stories.
Girls in all of the local primary schools from grades one to four were shown how to tell their Girls Can story using a PowerPoint presentation by Nerissa Golden of goldenmedia, who is also a member of the ICT Council.
“They were all very enthusiastic about sharing their ideas of what Girls Can do. We will have the opportunity to see the winning presentations and films on Girls in ICT Day,” Golden said.
Other activities planned for next Thursday’s celebration include a tour of the MVO by girls from the Lighthouse Academy, to see the various jobs that use ICTs to monitor the volcano and provide data.
Representatives of several local companies will conduct one-hour presentations at each of the other local schools from Primary to the Community College on potential careers which involve ICTs.
“This year we expanded the usual activities to encompass girls in a wider age range as we want as many of them to be exposed to the options available to them,” explained Golden. “ICT related jobs cover a myriad of fields and it continues to generate new ways of doing business and offering services that can help to transform nations. We want our girls to be a part of that process and to start thinking as early as possible about how the technology they use every day can make a difference.”
The Council will be offering several prizes to the winners in each category to include an iPhone, iPad and tablets.
