Shadow Tech is a company whose main initiative is to inspire young women to join Aotearoa’s fastest-growing and highest-paid sector - technology. 

Shadow Tech offers girls in years 9-11 an opportunity to discover the world of tech, spark their curiosity and explore career pathways. Matched with local tech companies, students gain hands-on experiences to imagine their future careers and gain an insight into the varied roles on offer within tech.

Earlier this term, a group of 13 Year 10 and 11 Digital Technology students had the opportunity to attend Shadow Tech Day. On this day, Shadow Tech pairs each school that signs up with a different company. The girls got to experience a day at Renti, a company whose website and app help both managers and renters of a property.

They split into smaller groups and rotated around different departments in the building that had different activities and demonstrations planned for them such as UX designers, sales/ marketing, programmers, and communication. The students also had the chance to ask a panel of their female workers questions at the end about what it is like to work as a woman in the tech industry. They enjoyed the experience as a whole and learned a lot from it.