Mastercard Renews Commitment to STEM Education for Girls in the UAE with #Girls4Tech Program

With female inclusion, opportunity and empowerment being among its top priorities globally, Mastercard, a leading technology company in the global payments industry, recently hosted its education program Girls4Tech™ in Dubai for the third consecutive year.

Launched in 2014, Girls4Tech™ is Mastercard’s award-winning education program aimed at creating future problem solvers. The curriculum was created in conjunction with top engineers and technologists at Mastercard to teach the foundations of STEM principles.

As part of the workshop that took place in Uptown School in Mirdif, a team of Mastercard volunteers worked with 50 students aged 10 to 12 to expose them to a range of STEM disciplines, by demonstrating the exciting aspects of these careers in a fun and engaging format at three dedicated stations including algorithms, digital convergence and cryptology. Leveraging on the expertise of Mastercard employees, the one-day hands-on inquiry program also offered insights into how the evolving payment technologies are connected to STEM principles.

“For us at Mastercard, a better world is a more balanced world where both genders are empowered with equal opportunities, which in turn, positively impacts the long-term positive growth of our economies. Our signature education program, Girls4Tech™, is a natural extension of our core values to drive greater female inclusion, especially in STEM fields, where they are still largely underrepresented. By providing an early educational and awareness platform to young women, the program offers us an opportunity to play an active role in nurturing the female leaders of tomorrow by extending the tools and resources they need to be in full control of their future,” said Beatrice Cornacchia, Head of Marketing and Communications – Middle East and Africa, Mastercard.

Earlier this month, Mastercard announced its goal to use the Girls4Tech™ platform to bring STEM education opportunities to 200,000 girls aged 10-13 globally by 2020. In line with this company-wide objective, Mastercard has rolled out a global marathon of STEM workshops in celebration of the International Day of the Girl 2017. To date, 11,000 girls have benefited from the program, which has run in seven languages including sign language, with more than 1,000 Mastercard employees acting as mentors and role models in 13 countries.

Last year, more than 1,400 girls visited Mastercard’s Girls4Tech™ booth at the Emirates Foundation ThinkScience Fair and explored the world of big-data analytics and algorithms, encryption, cryptology, and biometrics. In its second year, Smart Cities module was also introduced to the program in order to align it with Dubai’s aspirations to becoming a Smart City.