Gender Diversity: Wild Code School is Reinforcing Women Tech Position on the Market

33%, that is the percentage of women among Wild Code School’s students in 2022, and this number is about to grow even more.

CEO Anna Stépanoff co-founded Wild Code School in 2013, with the idea of creating a new environment of education – where the students could benefit from a personalized training support, but also from a project-based teaching approach thanks to ‘learning-by-doing’. The school promotes gender diversity among its students, to empower women in tech positions!

Today, Wild Code School is a leading European tech school offering lifelong learning programs at 20+ campuses, remotely or at company’s offices, and has trained 5,000 alumni in the most in-demand digital skills: web development, data, product management, cybersecurity and no code.

Behind Wild Code School’s Creation: Who is Anna Stépanoff?

It all started in Belarus, where Anna is originally from, and where her dream of being a teacher was born. When he benefited from scholarships to go further in her studies, she left her home country at the age 19 to fulfill her ambition.

Bachelor of Arts at Harvard University in Social Sciences, PhD on the History of museums at La Sorbonne, Consultant at McKinsey and now CEO at Wild Code School, she went through a lot of learning and working environments before starting an education business.

Her strong belief in education and technology changing lives made her realize three things: there was – and still is – a huge lack of tech talents in the market, women are underrepresented in this field and the straitjacket of education is not adapted to this fast evolving industry. Then came the idea of creating an alternative teaching approach, coupled to technology and aligned with the current businesses’ needs. Followed the birth of Wild Code School’s first campus in 2013, in La Loupe, France

More Women in Tech Positions

Tech jobs have never been that valued among young girls, even though our own vocations emerge at a very young age. No surprise that only 17% of women are working in tech, and that there are still a lot of barriers for women to work in the IT world. Paradoxically, tech companies increasingly seek women candidates and are starting to value gender diversity among teams.

The goal of Anna Stépanoff is to create an educational environment that empowers people, especially women. The school is progressively moving towards gender parity within IT fields by taking actions to facilitate women’s access to its training courses.

In 2017, the initiative Women are Programming aimed to boost women’s tech education by providing scholarships to acquire the hard and soft skills to make it as a tech professional. This was available on Wild Code School’s European campuses, such as:

• Coding Bootcamp Lisbon
• Coding Bootcamp Berlin

Another action is the promotion of women partners’ and Wilders’ careers and role models through events, interviews, articles, videos… Anna Stépanoff is one of them: mother of 3 children, and yet CEO of a leading tech school, Entrepreneur, and Regional advisor of the French Centre-Val de Loire Region, she made a successful career:

“Organize your life balance, work and family – with kids specially, they take time and the company takes time. I have 3 kids and that is my everyday challenge, we need to share responsibilities with our partner and father of our kids and be supported. I personally recommend women to be brave, to think that it is possible – I see a lot of women limiting themselves. Just go for it and try things and if it doesn’t work, it is ok!”

Technology talents are all around us, that is why the school is encouraging its students to change careers or upskill to fulfill their dreams, and helping companies find their next tech talent. Today, the rate of return to employment for women (86%) is even higher than Wild Code School’s overall rate (82%). Regardless of their initial level or age, female candidates are highly sought after.

Wild Code School’s students and partners prove it everyday:

“Go for it! You’re capable, courageous, and just as justified as men. Do it for yourself—but also for future generations. Your choices today will make the difference tomorrow. And if you falter at first, do it again!” – Anne, Talent Acquisition Specialist at Ubisoft Ivory Tower

“No more clichés of the pimply-faced geek developer with glasses locked in the dark. Web development is within the reach of anyone who is motivated and invested! As women, we can bring something different to the profession. […] We sometimes have a sharper eye for the practicality of certain features. We can be an asset to a team and we shouldn’t be afraid to take the plunge.” – Sophie, Toulouse alumni in web development

“I was planning to go into the data analysis field and it turned out that Wild Code School was looking for future students with my profile – and they were warding scholarships for the training. […] It was a gift ofdestiny for me. It was exactly what I wanted to do and it came at the right time” – Doriane, a Paris alumni in data analysis

“I worked for a few years in a consulting company and wanted to switch to coding. At that time, I discovered the initiative Women are Programming on Facebook and decided to apply for the scholarship. I passed the tests and joined Wild Code School for a 5-month web developer training and I am now specializing in front-end development. […] Wild Code School not only allowed me to discover powerful tech tools and languages, but also gave me all the skills I needed to have a global vision and practical experience in web development and be multi skilled and totally resourceful in finding a job afterwards.” – Audrey, Brussels alumni in web development

“Never hesitate to get started! This is a fast-growing sector and there is a great demand for new recruits. Moreover, you should not be afraid of this environment, which is still predominantly male, otherwise it will remain so and that would be a pity!” – Servanne, a Remote alumni in cybersecurity