Studio students headed to Liverpool Football Club at the end of November for a session with the club talking all things tech, organised by InnovateHer. The group of year 10 students – alongside Liverpool Life Sciences UTC students – enjoyed a welcome from CEO Peter Moore alongside lightning talks and Q&A sessions from Amazon Web Services’s Leanne Jagger and LFC staff, covering technology and transformation and human resources.
Enda Carey is sector skills champion at the Studio, and says: “We ran the InnovateHer programme to inspire girls in our school and inform them about the opportunities in the world of digital and creative. Over the weeks the girls have prototyped ideas and wireframed them, and are now coding applications that they have come up with. The real idea however is to instill a ‘can do’ attitude into the girls and make them feel that any job can be theirs in the future.
“The visit to LFC head office was a real highlight. It showed the girls what happens there and how the back office of a mainly male front-end-facing football club has lots of female workers, working on a par with their male counterparts and running lots of the departments there. We had talks from HR, operations, LFC TV and a number of others in a really action-packed fun afternoon, kicked off by a talk from the Liverpool CEO Peter Moore. He talked about how diverse talent was key to their success on and off the pitch – and how his daughters got started in their tech roles. All that was missing was more time!”
The visit was arranged in partnership with InnovateHer, of which LFC is a gold member. The programme is designed to equip girls between 12 to 16 with the self-belief, confidence and skills to pursue a career in technology, working with companies to create inclusive workplaces.
Simon Thornton is diversity and inclusion senior manager at Liverpool Football Club. He says: “I hope the girls found the visit both informative and inspirational, whilst also giving them the confidence to pursue a career in the tech industry should they wish to do so. As a club we are dedicated to promoting best practice in the workplace, including supporting inclusivity and gender diversity.”
Jo Morfee, co-founder of InnovateHer, added: “It’s life-changing for a 13-year-old girl to experience what it is like to work in a global company. When we took the group from the Life Sciences UTC and Studio Schools to LFC to visit the TV and technical departments they were amazed by the facilities there and inspired by meeting the real-life role models.
“Experiences like this really broaden their horizons and helps them to realise that everyone is welcome in the tech sector, regardless of background or identity. We are hugely thankful to LFC for their ongoing support.”