10 January 2018 – Ian Russell, CEO of BCX, has been appointed to the Board of iamtheCODE.

 iamtheCODE is the first Africa-led global movement designed to mobilise governments, businesses and investors to support young women in STEAMD (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, and Design), through learning how to code, creative learning and problem solving.

 Russell’s appointment to the iamtheCODE board fits BCX’s social impact philosophy, based on playing a key role in the development of South Africa’s economy by making future skills, especially coding, accessible to the youth.

 “I am honoured to be appointed as a board member of iamtheCODE,” says Russell. “At BCX, we believe that coding effectively needs to become South Africa’s 12th official language. I am passionate about developing digital skills for our country and for Africa. The private sector has an immense role to play in building this vital sector on the continent, and I’m proud that as an organisation we are doing this.”

 Over the past year, BCX has invested more than R100 million in skills development programmes such as WeThinkCode and the Explore Data Science Academy to drive access to affordable education in the coding and data science fields. In November 2017, BCX launched BCXLearn.com, a revolutionary digital learning platform designed to propel South African education into the digital future by providing free access to online educational content.

 iamtheCODE is on a drive to ensure that 1 million women and girls have equal access to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, linked to employability, by 2030.

 “We are excited to have Ian join us as an advisory board member, as he is a leader in the technology world and has expertise in the private sector,” said Mariéme Jamme, Young Global Leader and founder of iamtheCODE. “iamtheCODE works closely with the tech industry as it is the future employer of young women coders. Together we can build the recruitment pipeline with the private sector. We are proud to have BCX as our official partner in South Africa.”