#TechMums: Empowering Mothers Through Technology

TechMums' knowledge is all about helping moms understand the digital world and creating a better relationship between them and their children all around digital. In other words, it's all about moms' confidence with their digital skills.

Moms can use technology, whether they want to upskill, help the kids with their homework, or interact with friends through social media. TechMums support them in that learning.

The organization was founded by the famous computer scientist Professor Sue Black. The eminence was awarded an OBE for "services to technology" in the 2016 Queen's New Year's Honours list.

Named one of Forbes World Top 50 Women in Tech, Sue is well known for her thriving online and offline campaigning and activism around digital social inclusion and running the successful social media-led campaign to save the home of the WW2 codebreakers Bletchley Park.

She is also an inspiring champion for women in technology. Sue is the founder of BCSWomen, the UK's first online network for women in tech, and #TechMums, a social enterprise that empowers moms and their families through tech.

TechMums offer programs and services that support moms in learning about technology.

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The organization looks at essential digital fluency and the whole way to introduction to web design to coding.

One of the ways they operate is running TechMums Clubs, ten-week programs where they try to steer away from the academic language. The moms that attend this program want to make friends and learn, but they don't necessarily want to go to a night school or specialize in technology.

The course lasts two hours over ten weeks. There are partner organizations, libraries, cooperative centers, and community centers that host moms to learn how to use email, the Google suite, use collaborative tools, keep family photos on the cloud, and stay safe online.

The program teaches them how to prevent falling for phishing attempts, setting passwords, keeping their kids safe online, and returning to work. TechMums shows its students how to use LinkedIn and to put together a CV to look for jobs with transferable skills.

TechMums also show moms how to look after their money online and use Open Banking. They also learn about app design, web design, and coding. The moms leave with a website they've created in Wix.

For coding, they learn about Python and the history of programming and technology, and how it was predominately female based at the start. Thanks to the initiative, there's a massive change in terms of technical confidence.

In an interview with ProfileTree, Lauren Allison, programming & content advisor of TechMums, said, "we looked at that the biggest market was self-confidence, it changes a mom."

Allison points out that the organization also has TechMums TV, an online series sponsored by Facebook, Nominet Trust, and Home-Start UK. In the one-hour-long episodes, moms get engaged and talk about different tech topics (the same that they cover in TechMums Clubs). According to Allison, they reached over three hundred thousand moms.

Sue Black told the Silicon Republic, "Moms are the center of our communities, so the more we can go out to moms and help them to understand digital, we help the kids, the grandparents, and the whole community."