IGNITE quickly rose to be the nation’s best program for paving the path of gender equity in vocational training programs at schools. Cisco, one of IGNITE’s earliest industry partners, recognized IGNITE for increasing female enrollment in local Cisco Networking Academies from under 17% to up to 80%. For this achievement, IGNITE received the national Gender Equity Award along with $25k to support the program.
Letter from Cisco Alliance for Education
We at Cisco commend your work to inspire young women to consider high-tech as a positive career choice through the development of the IGNITE (Inspiring Girls Now, in Technology Evolution) Program with the Seattle Public School System. Your program has already achieved significant success in increasing awareness of high-tech career options and the training programs associated with them for young women. We wish you continued success. It is critical that programs like IGNITE continue to grow in order to increase the pipeline of women considering engineering and high-tech careers. In order to assist the IGNITE program to reach out and provide their model to other communities beyond Seattle, and Washington state, Cisco Systems is providing $25,000.00.
Below: Article in Cisco’s Learning Institute Gender Initiative Recognizing IGNITE as a Best Practice Program in North America
