Hear from our MD Michaela Eschbach on Founders4Schools in the context of International Women's Day 2022.

#InternationalWomensDay is a moment to think of all the incredible female role models out there. I would love to take the opportunity to thank all the women that have supported me throughout my life - my mum and my sisters, my English teacher, and women like Sherry Coutu. Thank you for all your support.

Founders4Schools works with a team of strong women who tirelessly strive to ensure that #youngpeople have the best possible career prospects, whether they are in early education, further education, or high-school leavers. This work extends to ensuring that all young girls have equal opportunities in fields where we know for a fact that there is a gender gap - industries that build on STEM education like finance, technology and Ai. With the velocity in which these sectors are developing, it's now more important than ever to #bridgethegap and ensure that they evolve to be equal and non-bias.

For us, #IWD22 is certainly about tackling bias, but more importantly about the long path to eradicating it. It's about the role of women in modern life, as well as the importance of challenging biases in the everyday - particularly prevalent biases that come into play when we make choices that impact our future.

This year we want to show appreciation of the power of #IWD, and the #wecan attitude it supports - We can and we will do everything in our power to help girls overcome the struggles that they face with confidence. The way in which F4S does this - the way we encourage everyone to help - is by showing young girls more role models and examples of the many different career journeys they have had. The more stories we tell, the more confidence we are able to instill in the younger female generations who will one day be setting the tone when it comes to equality in their industry. We want to ultimately give them the confidence that there is a unique career pathway that suits them - and the more they learn from role models, the better informed they are when it comes to making their own choices.

We show our appreciation of the many inspiring female #volunteers who speak at our F4S and #Maths4Girls events, because every time you take part you positively impact the choices of young girls everywhere. We also greatly admire the resilience of our female #teachers and #educators who not only themselves are every day role models to the children they teach, but also enrich the careers curriculum for young people across the country by routinely booking virtual and in-person events with us. These are the women who every day help us on that long journey towards a gender equal working world.

Make no mistake, the power of female role models is very strong.

Myself, my team, and the many resilient women who back us, look forward to continuing our work to ensure that every girl can have a role model.

#IWD22 #BreaktheBias

Michaela Eschbach