In the aftermath of Rolls-Royce engendering a partnership with Code First Girls, Rolls-Royce is hosting a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Artificial Intelligence and machine learning that is open to anyone across the globe. Code First Girls is a Not for Profit Social Enterprise that trains women in IT skills and helps companies to develop more female‑friendly recruitment policies.

With record subscriptions of over 500 people, the one-hour MooC will be launched on March 25th and follows on from The importance of diversity in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning’ podcast released earlier in March (Spotify, Apple).

Manisha Mistry, Portfolio Director, Digital Culture and Collaborations at Rolls-Royce, said, “This MOOC is a key element of our partnership with Code First Girls and a further indication of our journey at Rolls-Royce to become the world’s leading industrial technology. Diversity and inclusion are key to that and part of our work with Code First Girls is to ensure opportunities are available to women who want to get into tech.” She added, “This course will give participants a brilliant introductory view of Artificial Intelligence and its importance in organizations such as Rolls-Royce. Just as importantly, they’ll also get access to our R2 Data Labs community to collaborate, practice and share ideas as they learn.”

Commenting on the occasion, Jonathan Hewitt, Growth and Marketing Manager, Code First Girls, said, "Rolls-Royce's commitment to an inclusive and diverse workforce, coupled with its ethical commitment to technological innovation in next-generation manufacturing and AI applications make it an ideal partner for Code First Girls. We are excited to have Rolls-Royce onboard, among over a dozen visionary tech companies, to deliver coding education and career opportunities to women across the world. Together, we will teach 40,000 women to code by the end of 2021, and I'm sure we will achieve many further milestones in the years to come."

The company has also announced that the participants can register for the machine learning and artificial intelligence course on Rolls-Royce’s website. The company indeed is building on the free-to-access ‘Helping You Prepare’ program run by Rolls-Royce and its partners, which was launched in May 2020 and has seen more than 30,000 subscribers take advantage of the world-class digital training that Rolls-Royce uses for its own digital transformation.