UK-SA Tech Hub launches Coding Moms, a training programme for mothers

11 Nov 2020

The UK-South Africa Tech Hub has recently launched Coding Moms, a programme aimed at providing mothers and women from marginalised areas, including those who may have suffered gender-based violence, with basic digital skills to participate in the digital economy, whilst simultaneously creating an enabling environment for their children and communities.

Photo by Christina @wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

For this important initiative, the UK-South Africa Tech Hub is partnering with Further, specialists in the capacity-building of community-based entrepreneurs, and Coding Mamas, an organisation which provides mothers with the necessary skills to participate in the digital economy in a safe and welcoming environment for mothers and their children.

Shirley Gilbey, director of the UK-South Africa Tech Hub, says: “Women from marginalised areas experience more exclusion than other segments of the population. Additionally, only 23% of tech jobs are held by women in South Africa. By bringing vulnerable mothers from excluded communities into the digital economy through upskilling in key tech skills, we aim to create an empowering and enabling environment for them and their families.”

The programme will provide training in foundational digital skills such as basic coding knowledge, app and web development, business and job-seeking skills to mothers in marginalised communities in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. The programme will also partner with local community organisations who are already working with women, with a focus on victims and survivors of gender-based violence.

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Lindsay Cilliers, co-founder of Further, says: “Our vision is to provide an inclusive programme that not only provides a broad base of women with foundational digital, business and employability skills, but equally builds their self-belief and self-efficacy, and the ability to visualise a better future for themselves.”

“Through our capacity-building work with grass-roots social entrepreneurs and young community leaders, we’ve seen the impact these programmes can have in broadening the horizons of what is possible. We’re excited to be working with Coding Mamas on this important initiative,” says Cilliers.

“As Coding Mamas, we aim to create safe spaces and experiences that allow moms (and their kids) to prepare for the digital economy, by upskilling themselves, connecting with others and get access to the necessary resources,” says Elisja van Niekerk, co-founder of CodingMamas.