SThree employees come together to build a brighter future for women in STEM

We are proud to announce that our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) board has approved SThree Foundation to donate funds totalling $5,000 to Tech Girls Movement – an Australian organisation that exists to give girls access to technology and present real life female role models to inspire them to pursue a career within the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Our contribution to Tech Girls Movement will support 10 girls from underprivileged backgrounds to enter the 2019 Tech Girls are Superheroes Competition. We are delighted with this outcome and we look forward to working more closely with Tech Girls Movement in the years to come.

 

What is the Tech Girls Movement’ Superheroes Competition about?

Our decision to partner with Tech Girls Movement is due to their unwavering focus on improving female representation in STEM markets. Their mission resonated with us at a deeper level as this is what we want to achieve as a recruitment business in STEM. The 2019 Tech Girls are Superheroes competition includes a 12-week STEM Entrepreneurship program for girls within the 7-17 age group with the goal of them developing a business plan after identifying a problem in their local community, designing an app and coding an app prototype. The winning teams will then head to Silicon Valley to pitch their app to top technology executives and engineers. In the past 5 years, 4,000 girls have participated in the program. As a result of this initiative, 77.3% of students have become more likely to consider a career in STEM, with 69.5% of students more likely to start their own business after completing the program.

 

What is the SThree Foundation about?

We founded the SThree Foundation in 2016 to develop a diverse STEM talent pipeline. Back then, we knew the STEM industries were set to provide sustainable, impactful and rewarding careers. However, we quickly identified a shortfall in quality STEM candidates. Building the SThree Foundation was therefore our way to bridge the gap between the supply and demand of STEM talent as well as bring career opportunities in STEM to everyone.

Through SThree Foundation, we funded projects that engaged, excited and inspired people from diverse backgrounds to get involved in STEM. On a global scale, we also funded the following:

•         A work experience program delivering over 80 STEM Insight Placements across the UK for secondary school pupils
•         A coding class and a science class for disadvantaged children in Amsterdam
•         Scholarships to university students studying STEM subjects
•         Mentoring young people from underprivileged backgrounds in their STEM studies
•         Big STEM Debates in London that develop the skills of young people and engage them in topical STEM discussions
•         SThree Germany supporting Joblinge – an initiative supporting young people experiencing difficulty in joining the workforce
•         SThree Dubai partnering with the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children

In the two years since launching the SThree Foundation, we have engaged over 400 people from diverse backgrounds in STEM, through career talks at schools and funding impactful STEM projects.

“At the CSR Board meeting two weeks ago, our CEO and Chairman were incredibly impressed by the CSR report from the APAC region. They very quickly calculated the fundraising per head and were certain that per person they are one of/if not the highest performing region on fundraising for ASA. This is a huge achievement and really stood out when we were going through our global activity report. Our Q1 report didn’t even include this addition from Tokyo.”- Gemma Branney, Global Head of CSR.

 

What does our CSR initiative look like in action?

Our CSR programme is employee-led and includes two days of paid volunteering days per year to every employee. In addition to the above, the SThree Foundation has also confirmed that it will match funds that SThree Australia raises for its new charity partnership – African Science Academy (ASA) based in Ghana. Every year, ASA prepares 25 girls across Africa to pursue a career in STEM by providing them with the right platform to develop an interest in STEM, meet inspiring leaders at school and undertake numerous personal development opportunities – all whilst completing their Cambridge International A-levels in under 10 months. ASA also fast-tracks students’ pathway to university and helps them secure scholarships within Computer Science, Engineering and other STEM-related degrees at universities in the UK, USA and Africa.

As a specialist STEM recruitment firm, we know that a career in STEM can be life-changing. With the advent of technology, not only have the STEM industries grew and became more relevant, it has also evolved into a sustainable career with purpose. The charity is supporting more females into STEM and at Sthree, one of our business priorities is to provide a more diversified talent pipeline to our clients and the industries we operate in. Our aim is to transform the lives of the girls at ASA and help more women transform the world by making significant contributions in STEM.

“My life has been transformed since the day I entered the African Science Academy. I know my way of thinking and my analysis of situations has improved enormously. Thanks to the training I have received from ASA, I now strive to make a difference wherever I go.” - ASA student, 2016

 

Our Take 50 Entrepreneurial Challenge

Throughout the month of April, all our 40 global offices will be getting their teams involved in the firm-wide Take 50 Challenge, with the aim of raising funds to support ASA.

As part of the challenge, each team will be given $100 and tasked to turn those funds into hundreds or even thousands of dollars. This could either be raised by setting up a snack shop in the office, creating an event or a product to sell. The aim is to encourage our employees to engage their entrepreneurial team spirit whilst directing their collective efforts towards a common goal.

We have a designated CSR Champion coordinating the competition in each office and we also have a  Marketing Team in each region to ensure that we are operating as one effective unit by tracking, sharing and communicating the group’s CSR activities. We found our global CSR initiative to be a great way to reinforce collaboration across the team and really bring our people together. The winning team will be able to win a trip to Ghana where ASA is based to see how their efforts are making a positive impact on others.

 

Join us in our initiative to support women in STEM

Last year, we launched the first session of our Women in STEM networking series in Sydney – which further positioned ourselves as a firm advocate of female leadership and gender parity in STEM markets. Our panel discussion consisted of the following key industry players who shared their insights and experience in the STEM industry:

• Stephanie Chung – Director of Digital and Technology, CBRE
• Ruth Santangelo – Senior Portfolio Delivery Manager, Optus
• Grainne Kearns – Chief Information Officer, Lion
• Tanya Graham – Enterprise Program Director, Alinta Energy; and
• Dave Uchimoto – Principal Lead Software Engineer, The Trade Desk.

Our event was very well-received and resonated with many of our clients and candidates who are also part of the STEM community in Australia. As a follow-up, our events team is currently planning a roundtable event with leaders in the STEM market to take place next month. We will produce a white paper outlining our findings in May 2019.

Should you wish to join us or support our SThree Foundation initiative, please contact Julie at [email protected] for a confidential discussion.

Progressive Recruitment is part of the larger SThree Group.