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Oxford’s Creative Destruction Lab is inspiring girls to get into STEM entrepreneurship

Published

After a two-year pause owing to the pandemic, Oxford-CDL is running its Senior School Girls Programme again.

The Oxford Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) has relaunched its Senior School Girls Programme, following a hiatus owing to the pandemic.

Girls aged 16-18 from Oxfordshire schools have been paired with CDL mentors to observe meetings between the mentors and venture founders at a CDL session.

Sarah Barratt Ball, Director of CDL-Oxford said:

‘We are thrilled to see the return of our Senior School Girls Programme, despite the challenges of the past two years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. Women continue to be under-represented in STEM careers. By providing an immersive experience, matching students with experienced Mentors, as they guide seed stage, deep-tech ventures from across the UK and Europe, female students gain insights into the important roles they could play within science. Entrepreneurship and innovation plays such a vital function within society, one that is rarely accessible for young students in such an impactful way.’

Women have long been under-represented in these fields, and currently just 6% of the UK’s engineering workforce are women. Introducing girls at an early age to these fields, both in and out of the classroom, helps promote an interest to pursue them.

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One of the girls who attended Aisling, said: 

‘I feel that going away from CDL my interest in business has certainly developed, previously I had never really considered it a possibility or something I could find enjoyable or stimulating. Yet being given a chance to see it with my own eyes has really shown me the appeal behind it. I found witnessing some of the start-ups’ sheer drive quite inspiring.’

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Similarly, Megan felt this experience was not something she could get from school:

‘Overall, this experience is something that I had to go out and do myself and is something that a school couldn't give me within its walls and education. This was something that I thought was inspiring and something every student should have the opportunity to have because it teaches us an important lesson, how to keep up with the future.’

The Creative Destruction Lab is a non-profit organisation that brings together students, university researchers, top-tier investors, business leaders and start-ups, to breathe life into ambitious ideas. Since the programme began in 2012, £12.6 billion has been created in equity value. 

The process involves objectives-based mentoring and over the nine-month programme, founders learn from experienced entrepreneurs sharing knowledge to increase their chances of success.

Launching in 2019, Oxford became the first CDL site in Europe and is one of twelve around the world. For the 2021 - 2022 programme, 106 students have been admitted to CDL-Oxford.

CDL-Oxford brings graduate students in SBS to work with technical founders admitted to the CDL programme on bespoke projects. CDL programme provides students with the opportunity to be exposed to otherwise hidden interactions between venture founders, investors and mentors

Oxford CDL provides four streams made up of Artificial Intelligence and Health, as well as Climate and FinTech, which were introduced this year.

Reflecting on this development, Sarah added:

‘We have continued to scale CDL-Oxford this programme year, by adding Climate and FinTech streams to those already existing in Artificial Intelligence and Health. As we hosted our Global Super Session event last week, showcasing the most outstanding graduate ventures from all ten CDL sites (five in Canada, three in the US and two in Europe), it reminds me that what makes the programme unique is the ability to connect Oxford Saïd, with national and international partners. We look forward to continuing to drive and celebrate the transformative power of this collaboration.’

Learn more about the CDL-Oxford.