September goIT Monthly Challenge: Paving the Way for Gender Equality

The digital revolution opened a world of possibilities for women and girls, offering more access to the digital economy, education, political representation, and careers in STEM fields than ever before. However, a stark global gender gap remains largely unaddressed and is widening.

According to The World Economic Forum 2023 Global Gender Gap Report, it will take 162 years to close the gender gap related to political empowerment, 169 years to close gender gaps related to economic participation and opportunity, and 16 years to appropriately address the educational attainment gap. The time it might take to close the gap related to health and survival remains undefined. Furthermore, according to the United Nations Global Compact, if women and men participated equally in the economy, it could add an additional $28 trillion to the global annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025.

To help advance gender equality and change these global trends for the better, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is joining forces with Laboratoria for the September goIT Monthly Challenge. Focused on United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #5: Gender Equality, the challenge invites students aged 6-18 to use their voices and creativity to ignite change by creating a concept for a digital innovation —such as a website or an app — that could help close the global gender divide.

Learn more about the September goIT Monthly Challenge at: on.tcs.com/goIT-ENG.

About Laboratoria 
Laboratoria offers young women from low-income backgrounds a career in tech that transforms their future. With locations in Peru, Mexico and Chile, and expansion plans across the region, Laboratoria is quickly becoming a leading source of female tech talent from Latin America to the world. Over 200 companies in Latin America and the U.S. are already hiring from Laboratoria, and global tech companies such as Google are backing the program. World leaders like Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg have recognized its impact on changing how low-income youth can be prepared for the jobs of the future, and its potential to bring in the talent and diversity the tech sector needs to grow.

About TCS’ goIT Monthly Challenge 
TCS’s Go Innovate Together program (goIT) is TCS’ flagship STEM education program. Focusing on digital innovation and career readiness, goIT engages students from diverse backgrounds to bridge the learning curve between Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects and computer science, design thinking and digital innovation. The program offers an industry-developed, customizable curriculum that teaches students the 21st century skills necessary for a career in technology. Lessons cover topics including the innovation lifecycle, rapid prototyping, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and more.

Since the launch of the goIT Monthly Challenge in 2020, thousands of students across the globe have used key principles from goIT to design tech-based solutions and submit pitch videos based on a monthly Challenge theme. Each month, TCS co-hosts the event with a Sustainable Development Goal ambassador, globally minded nonprofit or a TCS client. The Challenge has engaged a growing number of teachers and students every month, exploring topics ranging from gender equality and systemic racism to protecting life under water.

Visit the goIT Monthly Challenge competition website to learn how to involve students in upcoming challenges at: http://on.tcs.com/goIT-ENG