Teen-Turn
Year Awarded
2020
Amount
€50,000
- Organisation:Teen-Turn
- Audience:Transition Year Students, Post Primary Teachers - Junior Cycle, Post Primary Teachers - Senior Cycle, Third Level
- Format:Non-formal Education
- Location:Carlow, Clare, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Longford, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, national
Project Summary
Teen-Turn aims to influence course decision-making processes, inform participants on education and career options, and combat stereotypes by strategically changing how girls from disadvantaged and underrepresented communities identify with STEM career environments through mentored summer work placements, after school activities and alumnae opportunities.
Programming begins with a work placement in the summer after Junior Cert, during which participants are exposed to projects, introduced to role models and begin to blog about their time so that we can evaluate the effect of the experiences. From there, the girls have the option to join after school activities which include science projects for BTYSE/SciFest, the creation of a social enterprise and app development for Technovation, homework/grinds clubs, or related events like learning camps and incubators with company partners. Once participants have completed secondary school, they enter into our alumnae network–which offers numerous events to meet with fellow Teen-Turn participants, mentors who are women working in STEM roles, and career advisors all there to help with qualification completion and to build a professional network.
What we do is empower our participants-to identify a STEM interest, to be supported in the pursuit of mastering skills and gaining qualifications related to that interest, and then provided the connections and social capital and ongoing reinforcement to develop a STEM career from that interest. We call it our ‘Junior Cert to Job’ commitment.