We believe that tech can be learned by anyone despite of race or gender! Discover how Le Wagon embraces diversity in the tech community and advocates for social justice and equality as a global company.
Summary
Diversity: The fact of many different types of things or people being included in something; a range of different things or people; the fact that there are many different ideas or opinions about something (Cambridge Dictionary).
Diversity in Gender
The issue of parity is getting worse. In the 50’s and 60’s, women were pioneers in computer science. When computers became a fixture of homes in the 80’s, they were marketed as toys for boys. This created a large pool of boys entering the tech ecosystem earlier than girls. It’s still difficult to change “bro” culture and break down macho stereotypes in an industry that still struggles to be inclusive. One major way to remedy this would be to promote digital literacy among girls to help them understand that technology is for everyone. We believe in diversity in the workplace because it is the type of future we want to build toward. Tech shouldn't be a boys' club.
We have been running "Women's Coding/Data Days" across the world to promote diversity in tech and encouraging women to explore the tech world to fill the gender gap. That is why Le Wagon sponsored coding classes for women in China to keep pushing hard for more balance in this field! Last year with Ladies Who Tech, we offered financial support for ladies who are eager to learn tech skills and covered 10,000RMB of our Immersive Full-Stack Program tuition for three final ladies who won the scholarships. We want to inspire and encourage more women to discover their potential in STEM. This year, IPWS announced our general manager, Thibault Genaitay, as the winner of HeForShe Man of the year, for our consistent efforts on encouraging women to participate in the tech world.
“From 2019 onwards, we have been reaching a much better gender balance in our classrooms. Thanks to the actions taken and all continuous efforts of our teams, I’m confident 2020+ , we will help more and more women to begin or transit their career into the tech industry!
Of course, we will keep communicating our gender balance and track this KPI, just like the other 2 goals we did set!
’Thibault, are you going to hire more guys?‘ is a question that a female member of my Shanghai crew asked lately. Legit question. Perhaps we went too far, or perhaps we did just not enough? As of April 2020, the staff running operations in China is constituted of 2/3 of women… ”
—— Thibault Genaitay
However, this fight is not over, and there's a lot of work to be done!
Diversity in DNA
We have been a global company since day 1 - we are now in ALL 6 continents! Le Wagon has diverse footprints around the world, 39 locations up to now, helping people all over the world change their life by learning to code. Our bootcamps accept students from various countries, nationalities and working backgrounds. Le Wagon China staff also have a diverse background, most of us have either lived or studied abroad in Asia (China/Singapore), US, Europe (UK/France/Germany/Denmark/Turkey/Lithuania), Middle East (Dubai). With this diversity in our workplace, we are able to be open, understanding, helpful and inclusive to every student in our bootcamp.
Diversity in Social Matters
We embrace liberty and advocate for human rights such as LGBT, BLM,especially at a time where justice has not been carried out for some of our community in their home countries or abroad.
#Pride has always been deeply rooted in the quest for justice, equality, and liberation. In light of recent events across North America, this Pride Month, TikTok recognizes the importance of intersectionality and reasserts our solidarity with the Black community.
Why is diversity beneficial?
Cultural diversity can increase creativity & problem solving: At Le Wagon, we encourage our students to work in pairs or teams to go through coding challenges together. A diverse background will lead to different ideas and solutions towards problems. In the final project week, they will team up and help each other with coding difficulties, and launch a demo product together.
With so many different and diverse minds coming and working together, many more solutions will arise as every individual brings in their personal way of thinking, operating and solving problems and making decisions. Organizations that encourage diversity in the workplace inspire all of their employees to perform to their highest ability.
The diversity of thoughts leads to better problem-solving and to increase engagement. Collaborating with individuals of different genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities, and race leads to increased innovation and enhanced problem-solving. Diversity means onboarding different methods and strategies of thinking and a more interactive learning community.