In 2007, high school girls at Oakland Tech High School in Oakland, California studied circuitry, bridge building, soldering, toy design, green design and robotics through Techbridge’s science, technology and engineering outreach program. Among the resources used to teach the girls were PicoCricket Kits, which mixes robotics and programming with creativity in design. Read about the program’s positive effects on the girls’ self-confidence and interest in computer programming.
Empowering Educators to Recruit and Retain Women in STEM and Career Technical Education
How to Create an Effective Plan for Increasing
Female Enrollment in STEM and CTE Career Pathways
Female Enrollment in STEM and CTE Career Pathways
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BE THE NEXT SUCCESS STORYTestimonials
- Testimonial 1
- Testimonial 2
Computer Science/Information Technology
Interim District Director of Faculty Development, Broward College, FL
Engineering Technology
I’m happy to say it worked! Our Engineering Technology program went from 2 female students to 12 in only one semester and retention went from 50% to 100%.
I've been an educator for a very long time: 40 years in education and 30 years at a community college. I thought I knew everything related to education. Well, I quickly found out with the WomenTech Educator’s program that you were guiding us through there were a lot of strategies that I had never realized we should try, things I never would have thought about doing myself to interest females in STEM fields. I also found out that there were many people at the college that were interested in the project. Getting people to buy in as early adopters in several areas in the college was very important.”
I've been an educator for a very long time: 40 years in education and 30 years at a community college. I thought I knew everything related to education. Well, I quickly found out with the WomenTech Educator’s program that you were guiding us through there were a lot of strategies that I had never realized we should try, things I never would have thought about doing myself to interest females in STEM fields. I also found out that there were many people at the college that were interested in the project. Getting people to buy in as early adopters in several areas in the college was very important.”
Former Dean of STEM, Patrick Henry Community College, Martinsville City, VA
Automotive Pre-Apprenticeship
The knowledgebase that IWITTS provided us on how to build an outreach strategy that targeted women helped us to tap existing resources within the college and led to our great results—from zero to 7 women in the Automotive Pre-Apprenticeship program in 2.5 months.
“There was a big difference in how we recruited for our 1st cohort of Pre-Apprentices—which had no women—and our 2nd cohort that had 7. The WomenTech Training gave us a robust Version 2.0 Outreach Strategy. We had an entire platform and the messaging including: a Women and Automotive website, flyers featuring female role models, and a fact sheet with talking points about why automotive and apprenticeship is a good field for women. Plus, we had 3 Women in Automotive Meet & Greets with female automotive technicians.
“There was a big difference in how we recruited for our 1st cohort of Pre-Apprentices—which had no women—and our 2nd cohort that had 7. The WomenTech Training gave us a robust Version 2.0 Outreach Strategy. We had an entire platform and the messaging including: a Women and Automotive website, flyers featuring female role models, and a fact sheet with talking points about why automotive and apprenticeship is a good field for women. Plus, we had 3 Women in Automotive Meet & Greets with female automotive technicians.
Director of Apprenticeship & Instructional Service Agreements, Workforce Development, City College of San Francisco, CA
Manufacturing
Before the WomenTech Educators Training, I felt like I was just spinning my wheels trying to get more women into our Automotive Manufacturing Technology program. After the training, Lawson State went from only 2 female students in Automotive Manufacturing Technology to 11 in just over a year.
If you’re tired of spinning your wheels attempting to get more women in your program, then the WomenTech Educators Training is the way to do it.
I think the team was the biggest difference. We were able to get all kinds of perspectives. I think it worked much better because we had buy-in from the instructors and the staff—if you're working on it and you're part of it, you own it. Our team owned the Recruitment and Retention Plans. We were able to hear what strategies had been tried in the past that didn’t work, so we could leave those out of our plan.
If you’re tired of spinning your wheels attempting to get more women in your program, then the WomenTech Educators Training is the way to do it.
I think the team was the biggest difference. We were able to get all kinds of perspectives. I think it worked much better because we had buy-in from the instructors and the staff—if you're working on it and you're part of it, you own it. Our team owned the Recruitment and Retention Plans. We were able to hear what strategies had been tried in the past that didn’t work, so we could leave those out of our plan.
Assistant Dean, Career Technical Education, Lawson State Community College, Bessemer, AL
Makerspace
CCSF achieved 50% female participation in the new Makerspace 101 course, 2 semesters in a row.
“The WomenTech Makerspace Training brought our team together and was expertly facilitated. It enabled CCSF to achieve our grant’s goals to make our MakerSPHERE inclusive to ALL students from day one. It led us through the process of capturing our busy faculty's ideas, and collected them in a very effective way.
I don’t think we could have gotten to this point without Donna's facilitation. I knew from my past experience with IWITTS that Donna could help us create a plan that would produce results.
“The WomenTech Makerspace Training brought our team together and was expertly facilitated. It enabled CCSF to achieve our grant’s goals to make our MakerSPHERE inclusive to ALL students from day one. It led us through the process of capturing our busy faculty's ideas, and collected them in a very effective way.
I don’t think we could have gotten to this point without Donna's facilitation. I knew from my past experience with IWITTS that Donna could help us create a plan that would produce results.
MakerSPHERE Coordinator, Faculty, CNIT Department - Web Development Programs, City College of San Francisco, CA
Cybersecurity, Construction, Engineering, Manufacturing
“The greatest benefit was seeing almost immediate results. In the first fall semester following the training, we saw female enrollment in our carpentry program go from 7% to 17%, and we saw overall growth in all four targeted programs.
The WomenTech Educators Training helped us think outside the box for recruitment and retention of female students. The mostly male faculty of these programs became more aware of the simple things they can say and do to encourage women to pursue these career fields.
I would recommend the WomenTech Educators Onsite Training & Coaching to other schools. This is a great way to get the conversations started around how to help women feel more welcomed into male-dominated career fields.
The WomenTech Educators Training helped us think outside the box for recruitment and retention of female students. The mostly male faculty of these programs became more aware of the simple things they can say and do to encourage women to pursue these career fields.
I would recommend the WomenTech Educators Onsite Training & Coaching to other schools. This is a great way to get the conversations started around how to help women feel more welcomed into male-dominated career fields.
Dean of Engineering and Applied Technology, Fayetteville Technical Community College, North Carolina
Manufacturing
Female enrollment went from only 1 female student to 9 out of 13 the next semester. Retention of both female and male students went from 50% to 100%.
“The WomenTech Educators Training was very eye-opening and it provided a vehicle and framework to focus our efforts. The most valuable aspect of the training was building our team! Getting a group of people focused and thinking about retention was a good thing. Getting institutional buy-in is critical. While top-level management needs to know what's going on, it's the faculty—the people actually doing the work—that you need to get on board.
When our team first participated in the WomenTech Educators Training, we were focused on the BioTech Manufacturing program, but we built that up and we've now translated the training to our other Manufacturing programs with a similar approach.
“The WomenTech Educators Training was very eye-opening and it provided a vehicle and framework to focus our efforts. The most valuable aspect of the training was building our team! Getting a group of people focused and thinking about retention was a good thing. Getting institutional buy-in is critical. While top-level management needs to know what's going on, it's the faculty—the people actually doing the work—that you need to get on board.
When our team first participated in the WomenTech Educators Training, we were focused on the BioTech Manufacturing program, but we built that up and we've now translated the training to our other Manufacturing programs with a similar approach.
Dean of Workforce Development at Mount Wachusett Community College and Project Director for Massachusetts Advanced Manufacturing TechHire Collaborative
Emerging Technology
“We were able to go from only 1 female student to 15 in an Emerging Technologies course the very next semester after the training. A year later, we awarded almost half of our 43 Video Game Design & Development certificates to women.
Our college is a numbers-driven organization, so we know that the strategies we tried after the WomenTech Educators Training really made an impact. We now have more women in the program than we thought would be possible. In fact, we're one of the programs that actually got off Perkins' Naughty List for not having enough women represented in the program because we were able to start meeting our goals.
Our college is a numbers-driven organization, so we know that the strategies we tried after the WomenTech Educators Training really made an impact. We now have more women in the program than we thought would be possible. In fact, we're one of the programs that actually got off Perkins' Naughty List for not having enough women represented in the program because we were able to start meeting our goals.
Program Chair and Instructor, Emerging Technologies, Athens Technical College, GA
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The WomenTech Educators Training got us thinking intentionally about who we were going to target for outreach, how we were going to target them, and how we would follow up to make sure we had actual results linked to the different programs and events that we were holding. Since then, it has grown organically and blossomed into something that our college just does naturally.
I think getting together as a team with intention—because we're all so busy—and developing a written plan that we could stick to was what made all the difference. I don’t think we would have ever done that if it wasn't for the WomenTech Educators Training.