Nokia encourages girls to pursue careers in IT through ’shadowing days’

HELSINKI, Finland – Nokia is involved in a number of initiatives to help develop and support the ambitions of young people (such as YouthActionNet), and similarly raise awareness for crucial global concerns such as sustainability (see Dreams Workshop). This week our attention was drawn to a program that Nokia has been supporting since 2007, started by the European Commission with a view to addressing the lack of women in IT careers. To tackle this problem, Nokia joined the ’shadowing days’ scheme, which sees girls visit Nokia and shadow the women working there to get a much greater understanding of the life and careers of women working in this area, and as the EU Commission puts it, prove that technology is not “strictly for geeks!”.

Recently a 13 year-old girl called Rosemarie Hartman, with ambitions to study Maths, Science and Technology, visited Nokia headquarters to do exactly that, and created a video diary of her day shadowing women within the company, from meetings about Comes With Music to teleconferences about recycling and a visit to the Nokia flagship store in Helsinki. It’s a great little video, that gives a candid insight into how the ’shadowing day’ program works as well as a peek behind the scenes at Nokia House. Click to watch the full video.
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