4,000 girls to attend the technology-career event I Wish

Some 4,000 teenage girls will meet role models for advice on careers in science and technology next month.

Leading game designers and top executives in firms like Google and Twitter will be joined by women with high-ranking roles in multinationals such as Accenture, Stryker, and Johnson & Johnson, to inspire female students to follow in their footsteps.

The initiative began three years ago, when three Cork businesswomen held the first I Wish event locally, but Cork and Dublin will each host two days of speakers and exhibitions this February.

The idea is to change the gender imbalance in science, technology, engineering, and maths (Stem) studies by showcasing the success stories of women in those disciplines.

“There will also be young female entrepreneurs from a variety of Stem backgrounds, talking about their careers, as well as young women with careers in traditionally male-dominated areas, such as engineering and maths,” said Gillian Keating, one of the I Wish founders.

The events will combine panels of speakers talking about how they got into their careers, but will also be an opportunity to meet exhibitors from companies looking for bright young people to join them in the Stem fields.

One of the speakers is Ciara Judge, who is involved in a number of entrepreneurial initiatives. She was a joint winner of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition four years ago, along with classmates from Kinsale Community School, Co Cork.

Meanwhile, 550 projects are preparing to try and emulate that feat in the 2017 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition at the RDS, Dublin, this week.

For those already hoping to start college later this year, the Choices for College supplement, in this Thursday’s Irish Examiner , has advice from experts on how to fill in the Central Applications Office (CAO) form, on new Leaving Certificate grades and CAO points from this year, and a full list of points for all CAO courses in 2016