Educate to innovate; GE and STEMAfrica moves to inspire the Girl-child

Last Updated 13 years ago by Kenya Engineer

The General Electric(GE) Volunteers Council in partnership with STEMAfrica Foundation on yesterday held an event dubbed “Girls in STEM” targeting 100 girls from 8 public Secondary schools in Nairobi. The full day event whose theme was “Educate to innovate” was held at the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE).

Educate to innovate, with a focus on the Girl-child-whose presence is lacking in Engineering- sought to increase the students’ self-confidence and leadership skills, post mentorship, support them in choosing a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) career through exposure and get the participants to contribute to poverty reduction in Africa by applying technology to solve Africa’s problems.

According to a report by the Engineering Registration Board (ERB, 2012), Kenya has approximately 7000 engineers of whom 1,600 are registered. This is against a recommended average of 1 for every 1000 citizens required for development. For a population of 40 million this works out to approximately 1 Engineer for every 6,000 citizens implying a shortage of approximately 33,000 Engineers to get Kenya to a developed country. Efforts towards changing this are not emphasized enough. STEMAfrica runs programs for both male and female youth that aim to see more young people take up careers in Science, Technology and Engineering in Africa. One of the ways of achieving this is through encouraging students to take up careers in STEM through initiatives like Girls in Stem. 

The High school students received talks from women Engineers in the industry on how to chart a career in Science and technology as well as careers options on the same and engaged them in a hands-on Engineering project to give them a feel of what Engineering is all about. Under ‘engineering your career’ the team led by Ms. Catherine Nyambala, a Director of STEMAfrica, exposed them to careers in Electrical, Telecoms, Mechanical & Manufacturing/ Industrial, Civil, Chemical, Geosciences, Aeronautical, Mechatronics, Petroleum and Biomedical Engineering.

In attendance was; Ms. Carol Koech of GE, Engineer Christine Ogut who gave the girls an overview of the requirements for registration by the Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK), and Engineer Zipporah Rotich. The Team of volunteers from GE, Ms. Joyce Laboso and Mr. Francis Thairu led by Ms. Gathigia Gatheru from GE guided the girls on the Engineering project.