File photo. Photo: 123RF
Hundreds of secondary-school girls will visit leading technology companies this coming week, as part of a programme to encourage women to have careers in tech.
As part of TechWomen's ShadowTech Day, 600 girls in years 9, 10 and 11 will spend a day at one of 50 companies.
Executive director Yvonne Gill said the girls would try out new technology, such as coding and AI tools, and speak with veterans of the profession.
She said many girls felt that the tech sector was a boys' club, and the programme hoped to dispel that myth.
"What we see in the tech industry is that we do have a diversity challenge", she said.
"That challenge starts in education, with females only making up 40 percent of NCEA technology students and then 24 percent of IT graduates."
Gill said only 29 percent of the country's digital IT workforce were female.