Today, at Riga Castle President of Latvia Egils Levits met with graduates of the “Riga TechGirls” education programme to hear about their experience and discuss digital skills training and career options.
The President of Latvia stressed that it is “unacceptable that there are still very few women working in the technology sector and that the stereotype still sometimes prevails of this being a male-dominated environment’. The President highly appreciated the “Riga TechGirls” idea to promote digital skills among women and he was delighted to listen to the experiences of graduates of the programme as they explained what had driven and motivated them to continue their digital development and career.
The President of Latvia noted the participation of Andra Levite as the patroness of the “Riga TechGirls” programme and emphasised the importance of a cooperation network and contacts that allow women to support encourage, motivate and help one another in learning new skills and building careers. For half a year, Advisors to the President — Ieva Ilvesa and Alise Pīka — provided support to six participants of the programme, and today the graduates visited Riga Castle for a final meeting with Ilvesa.
The “Riga TechGirls” programme “Get to Know Technologies” was launched in the summer of 2020 with all participants learning about various aspects of the digital sector. In 2021 the participants who wished to deepen their knowledge of specific topics and receive support from a technology sector mentors were able to continue the programme. The programme will continue in autumn with new participants joining it.