Luxoft, a global IT service provider, is hosting an event in London on 31 January with award-winning social enterprise Stemettes, to encourage young women from local schools to pursue a career in IT.

Luxoft and Stemettes are excited to welcome 14 specially selected girls aged 13-14 from the Royal Masonic Academy and Beal High School to Luxoft’s office on 44 Featherstone Street, EC1Y 8RN for the event.

Attendees will take part in a competition to build a money saving app and engage in workshops hosted by women working at Luxoft, ranging from Senior Directors to Junior Analysts, talking about their experiences of working in IT.

“Women have a key role to play in filling the skills gap in the tech sector, so we are always looking for ways to encourage young women to start a career in IT,” said Toni Marshall, Director in the Global Murex Practice at Excelian, Luxoft Financial Services.

Toni Marshall is heavily involved in the Company’s CSR initiatives, having set up Excelian’s – the financial services division of Luxoft - first graduate academy in 2010. Since then, her initiatives have expanded from the UK into Luxoft’s global CSR programme.

Toni continued, “Here at Excelian Luxoft we have introduced a career mentoring structure, developed our talent management and succession planning strategy and grown our training academies into a global offering. I see so many opportunities for women in IT and I want to help people take advantage of them.”

"We're excited to bring Luxoft onboard as a partner for our schools programme. Opening up the Luxoft environment to these young women will give them a top quality formative experience and positively influence how they see themselves and their perceptions of the technology industry. Getting creative and solving problems is what it's all about - not enough girls and young women know this," said Anne-Marie Imafidon, CEO at Stemettes.

This event is part of Luxoft’s global CSR initiative to promote gender equality in the tech industry, having hosted and participated in events in the US, Mexico, Russia, Romania, Poland and the UK in the past twelve months. Watch how Luxoft inspire women to work in IT in this video.