As software becomes more ubiquitous, the demand for people with coding skills continues to increase - not just in the software industry, but in every sector across the country. To address this challenge and help prepare the future generation, Software.org: the BSA Foundation is excited to spend its fifth summer teaching young women how to code.

Software.org's class, which starts today, is part of a summer immersion program in Washington, DC led by Girls Who Code, a national nonprofit dedicated to closing the gender gap through coding programs aimed at high school girls. Twenty-two young women from the DC-area will spend seven weeks learning the building blocks of computer science, like coding languages and web development. Students will also meet prominent female leaders in tech to gain inspiration for potential career paths.

"It's amazing to see how much our students grow during the program," said Chris Hopfensperger, Executive Director of Software.org: the BSA Foundation. "Not just the amount of coding they learn, but also the amount of confidence they gain to take on new challenges. We love partnering with Girls Who Code because it gives us an opportunity to help level the playing field and create more diversity in tech in a real way. It's hugely important for the industry to help girls take their seats at the keyboard - and to see a future for themselves in software."

Closing the gender gap in tech is a top priority for the software industry. Encouraging more women to pursue software careers will help ensure that software is developed with a wide range of perspectives, making it more innovate and secure. More women in tech could also help address the software industry's labor pipeline problem. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by 2026 there will be more than 500,000 new jobs in computing and IT.

"The software industry has more jobs than people who can fill them, and we need to make sure that young people, wherever they live, have the opportunity to become coders or computer scientists if they want," said Victoria Espinel, President of Software.org: the BSA Foundation. "Coding is such an important skill today that we know it will help them be successful in whatever career they choose."