Deloitte supports TGMF's Next Tech Girl Superhero contest

Deloitte and Amazon have done their bit in the ‘Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero’ (SNTGS) in Australia, by developing a web portal to better manage entries to the contest. The contest is organised by the Tech Girls Movement Foundation (TGMF) with hopes of attracting more girls to the tech scene.

SNTGS is organised every year across Australia and New Zealand, creating a platform for girls between the ages of 7 and 17 to showcase their digital skills. Candidates are tasked with creating a solution for a local community problem by developing a business model, and subsequently creating an app-based solution.

A prototype of the app is then presented to leaders from Australia’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sectors, who pick a winner. The top teams are rewarded with a trip to Silicon Valley and the opportunity to pitch their solution to experts there, which has naturally made the contest a mouth-watering prospect.

Interest in the contest has only grown, putting considerable strain on the entry and competition management platform. Deloitte and Amazon – who are cloud services partners in Australia and across the globe – were called in for support, and have come to the rescue with a well-segmented competition platform that divides the management process into clearly defined stages.

Starting with enrolment, on the assignment of mentors to each team, through the uploading of submissions to the judges, and the subsequent evaluation and feedback, the portal addresses each of these stages individually and allows for comprehensive management and oversight.

The new portal has been well-received. “We are delighted with the portal, which has made managing the competition so much easier this year, and the longer term benefits of the portal are priceless really as it gives us scalability – meaning we can extend the competition to reach more school girls across Australia and New Zealand,” said Jenine Beekhuyzen, founder and chief executive of TGMF.

The SNTGS contest is representative of crucial interventions that must be made to ensure that economic development in the near future is equitable. Analysis has shown that a more gender-balanced workforce could boost Australia’s economy by an additional $60 billion over and above the annual GDP. Attracting more women to the STEM domain is crucial to attain this gender balance, given that the business environment is soon to be centred on digital skills.

According to Cameron Curtis, a partner at Deloitte’s consulting arm, SNTGS is not only a step in the right direction, but it also promotes a set of skills that are particularly relevant to the real world. Curtis said, “We were delighted to support the Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition because it teaches girls the technology process the same way we at Deloitte apply it in the real world."

"Often technology programmes only teach an element of the tech process, like coding, which doesn’t help when it comes to identifying a problem, exploring solutions, or creating a business plan. By automating a lot of the processes, TGMF can now spend more of its time expanding the competition to more schools and teams and so fill the pipeline of women in tech with passionate and well-trained young women. That’s a huge benefit for all organisations.”