Local charity Love Tech has launched a new initiative which will donate educational STEM [Science, technology, engineering and maths] books to primary schools.

Love Tech aims to ’inspire and empower’ girls and young women to explore opportunities in STEM career fields.

The initiative, which starts with Scoill Yn Jubilee in Douglas and Onchan Primary School, also includes a short assembly about STEM where pupils will have the opportunity to hear and meet female STEM ’mentors’ and Love Tech volunteers who work in the Manx business community.

Two other primary schools have signed up, Ballaugh and Ballasalla, and any interested are being invited to get in contact.

The charity said that the books were specifically chosen to ’help spark the young readers’ interest and to illustrate diversity in STEM’, and include titles such as ’Women in Science’, ’How Cities Work’ and ’How to be a Maths Whizz’.

Lisa Karran of Love Tech, commented: ’In 2018, research from Microsoft revealed that the number of girls interested in STEM almost doubled when they had a positive role model, which reinforces the importance of these types of initiatives.

’Everyone at Love Tech is incredibly passionate about inspiring young people to follow their dreams and to consider the exciting career opportunities in STEM.

’We want to play our part in helping to address the global and local skills shortage and to redress the balance, where women are hugely underrepresented in STEM.’

She added that the initiative was a means of ’formalising’ the charity’s engagement with primary schools, and had come about after discussions with teachers who were ’very open’ to the idea. For more info people can email: [email protected]