Binance Charity partners Women in Tech to close industry’s gender gap
By Olivia Nnorom
Binance Charity and Women in Tech on Monday announced a flagship global partnership to provide blockchain educational courses to 2,800 women from vulnerable communities across Brazil and Africa.
Binance Charity, the philanthropic arm of Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency and blockchain infrastructure provider, is donating $250,000 BUSD for a six-month pilot project to empower women with the knowledge and skills to thrive in a Web3 future. The first courses will take place in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and Cape Town, South Africa, in October, this year.
The size of the global blockchain market is expected to grow from $4.93 billion in 2021 to more than $200 billion by 2028. However, the gender gap in tech has widened for the past four decades, with only one woman in every five people working in the industry today.
The partnership will see Women in Tech®, an international non-profit organization with a mission to close the gender gap across the tech sector, collaborate with Binance which shares the same goal, to provide professional training to the massive career opportunity set to open within the blockchain industry for women.
Helen Hai, VP of Binance and head of Binance Charity, said Binance is creating certified courses and removing financial barriers for women, especially those from vulnerable communities, to study and train because it believes that the future of crypto should be built by all.
“It is important to us at Binance and Women-in-Tech that quality blockchain education, innovation, and research opportunities are within everyone’s reach,” she said.
Courses including Blockchain fundamentals, Crypto fundamentals, Decentralization, Web3 and the Metaverse will be offered in classes of 25 to young women aged 15-25 by qualified trainers in person, online, or as a hybrid. The Web3 courses will be designed by Binance Academy and adapted to meet local context.
Binance hybrid model of distance and in-person learning will enable women to train and pursue a career in blockchain regardless of their existing developer skills. Classes will be designed for complete beginners and will include skills such as web development, front-end development, full-stack development, and the Blockchain modules.
As part of the Binance scholar programme, the Brazil pilot programme will take place in Morro dos Prazeres, Rio de Janeiro, for one of the first cohorts of 50 women. Over the course of the following five months, another 300 women will be signed up to the programme countrywide. The South Africa pilot programme will take place in Cape Town at the Philippi Village Tech Hub in the Philipp Township for an additional 50 women. Further programmes are expected to be rolled out across Zambia, Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, Burundi, Kenya, Ghana, and Ivory Coast, in the next six months. The global programme was launched last month with the IT Generations project, offering 1,000 Ukrainians full scholarships to study in tech-related courses.
This project will provide ongoing educational and professional support to students once they complete their courses. The Binance Scholar Program hopes to enable the next generation of digital leaders to develop their skills, knowledge, and experience without financial barriers.
Women-In-Tech™ is one of the world’s leading organizations empowering women in technology with a double mission: to close the gender gap in STEM and to help women embrace technology. The goal is to educate, equip and empower 5 million women and girls by 2030 with the necessary skills, confidence, and opportunities to succeed.