Girls from 8th grade must internship in companies such as Dong, Maersk and Novo Nordisk and meet female role models. It should encourage more people to apply for scientific and technical education.

Far fewer women than men choose science and technology subjects. This is a loss for the girls, businesses and society. Women make up only 19 percent of the new students, for example training as a software developer and 22 percent of new engineering students.

During the internship at Maersk

The combination of 17 companies and 74 girls from grade 8 will now get more girls to opt for scientific and technical education. On an internship fair at Eksperimentarium 27 September 2011 meetings the girls companies, and included each a placement agreement with one of them. The project is called "The internship as a problem solver - girls in science and technical subjects" and is a collaboration between the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Gender Equality, DTU, DI, Society of Engineers, IDA, and Exploratorium. Companies like Dong, Maersk and Novo Nordisk have signed up to the project and set aside time and resources to have the girls in internships one or two days during week 40 and 41st

It works

The project will motivate the girls by giving them practical experience of the professions and show them the exciting challenges and opportunities subjects offers. At the fair, they will also meet female role models who tell why they have chosen to go the natural sciences or technical way, and what they got out of it. Among the role models are Dorthe Ravnsbæk who in the spring was named Europe's best young researcher. The project is inspired by a similar action in Germany, which has existed for 10 years, and which today engages 120,000 girls annually. The initiative has helped that there are now significantly more girls who are looking into scientific and technical education after elementary school. The success is mainly due to the dedicated companies that have opened their doors to the participating girls. Gender distribution of selected programs, number recorded by gender: Short-cycle higher technical education, 26% women and 74% men. Software development, 19% women 0g 81% men. Engineer, 22% women and 78% men. Source: UVM