In the continuing effort to encourage women in technological pursuits, the Halifax chapter of Ladies Learning Code will hold its first workshop in the region in April.

Toronto-based Ladies Learning Code is a national not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to introduce women and girls to writing code and teach them to apply the skills to daily life and/or professional ambitions. Since August 2011, the organization has held workshops in several Canadian cities, and its first Atlantic Canadian session will be held Saturday, April 6, in Halifax. The session, to be led by Pearl Chen of Toronto, is an introduction to HTML and CSS -- basic codes that can be used in building simple websites.

The reason this organization exists is that women tend to shy away from technology. This is an international problem as the CRA Taulbee Survey shows that only 13.4 percent of the bachelor degrees in computer science in the U.S. in 2010 went to women. That means that women – who on average earn less than men – are excluding themselves from one of the great economic drivers of the modern economy.

“There are a lot of groups focused on this problem and I don’t know why that gap still exists,” said Rachel Aaron, the lead of the Halifax chapter. “Ladies Learning Code addresses the group that didn’t grow up with technology but could benefit from having technology in their lives.”

Certainly there are other groups even in Atlantic Canada that are trying to correct this problem, and many of them are working together.  The Atlantic Canadian chapter of Canadian Women in Technology, or CanWIT, is devoted to the cause, and several universities have women in technology groups. CompCamp, a computer camp for teens, has special programs for girls.

Aaron, an investment officer at Innovacorp, said Ladies Learning Code aims to teach the basics of coding to adult women and the course is taught in a format that will appeal to women. (She added that men are welcome to sign up, and several have at LLC events in other cities.)

“There’s a lot of difference in the way women learn and men learn – women are more collaborative,” said Aaron.

This is not a one-geek-in-his basement coding course. The session will be held in the bright and spacious foyer of the Innovacorp Enterprise Centre at 1344 Summer Street, to allow lots of movement and interaction between the groups. The participants will study in small groups and there will be at least one mentor for every four students.

The organization is hoping to have follow-on events so that participants can come back to successive courses and learn more about coding. The aim is to give women the technical capability to help with entrepreneurial or technical pursuits. For example, Aaron said that a businesswoman who could design and launch her own website could save $3,000 to $4,000.

The April 6 event will be held from 10 am to 5 pm and admission is $50.