TechnoGirl Trust Partners With CM.com To Create Stem Careers For South African Girls
TechnoGirl Trust Partners With CM.com To Create Stem Careers For South African Girls. TechnoGirl Trust (TGT) announces that CM.com and Happy Horizon have selected two beneficiaries from the TGT programme to complete an internship programme at the head offices of CM.com in Breda, the Netherlands.
It is the third time that beneficiaries from the TGT programme have been selected to go to the Netherlands since 2018. The internships stem from a partnership in 2018 between CM.com and TGT, shortly following a fundraising event hosted by UNICEF in the Netherlands, where the UN body presented TGT as one of the programmes. CM.com identified the programme’s merit and offered its network and knowledge to support the TechnoGirl Trust initiative through an internship programme.
The internship programme represents an innovative solution for youth development, reflecting both party’s shared focus on prosperity creation for young women in Africa for generations to come through gender equality, equity, and women’s economic Empowerment. “This will lead to improved access to sustainable employment opportunities and, in so doing, breaking the cycle of poverty for those girls participating in the programme,” says Sithole. “Our model is analogous to a recipe: ‘We give the ingredients, and you need to bake a cake’. The types of graduates emerging from this programme are young women who have developed the advanced personality of the independent thinker and are equipped to become an employee of choice, as well as to ‘give back’ to their respective communities.”
Jeroen van Glabbeek, CEO at CM.com says: “The aim of our holistic internship programme is to establish a sustainable talent pipeline of women that fosters economic growth by prioritising inclusivity, empowerment, and equal opportunity employment. It aims to address shortages of careers which are in high demand among growing African economies, and where women are traditionally under-represented. Through partnerships such as with TGT, our goal is to create economic opportunities for young women.”
Sithole, from TGT, adds: ‘Our goals are fully aligned with those of CM.com in ensuring everyone has an equal opportunity to learn, work and participate in the future digital world. Collaboration is key to fulfilling this goal. The model that we have developed at TGT is one of spreading the transformation burden with corporates such as CM.com, partnering with them to develop girls so they become better equipped for entry into STEM careers.”
