A Career Talk Event for Female High School Students in Fukui Prefecture Was Held.

The NICT Diversity Promotion Office held a Career Talk Event for female high school students in Fukui Prefecture on August 3, 2024 (Saturday), as part of the "Fukui Girls Future Tech Leaders" training organized by the Fukui Prefectural Board of Education.

The "Fukui Girls Future Tech Leaders" training was held as part of an initiative to nurture STEM talent, organized by the Fukui Prefectural Board of Education. During the program, female high school students from Fukui Prefecture visited IT companies both in the Tokyo metropolitan area and in their home prefecture. They toured offices, interacted with employees, and engaged in hands-on experiences, including programming and website creation. This initiative aimed to provide opportunities for motivation and inspiration for students to pursue careers in STEM.

The career talk event at NICT was held at the NICT Nihonbashi Innovation Center, with 26 female high school students in attendance.
The event began with a welcoming address by guest speaker Associate Professor SASAKI Narie (Graduate School of the University of Tokyo). Following that, the Diversity Promotion Office Director, Senior Executive Director MORIAI Shiho, Research Manager MIZUNO Maya, and Senior Researcher IHARA Aya took the stage as researchers.

Each speaker shared their experiences, including their journey from student life and what inspired them to pursue a research career, their career paths, the research they are currently working on, and their experiences working at NICT. The high school students listened intently, taking notes as they engaged with the speakers' stories.

In the latter half of the event, participants were divided into three groups, and a free talk-style Q&A session was held, providing an opportunity for closer interaction with Associate Professor SASAKI and the NICT speakers. In a relaxed atmosphere, the high school students actively posed a series of questions regarding research careers, academic pathways, and career planning.

After the event, a staff member from the Fukui Prefectural Board of Education remarked, "Each of the discussions today provided a great opportunity to broaden the perspectives and thinking of the students, which had been narrow until now. During the Q&A session (free talk), thanks to your warm encouragement, the students were able to ask many questions in a relaxed atmosphere. It was a very short but valuable time for them."

■Participants
26 second-year female high school students from high schools in Fukui Prefecture

■Guest
Dr. SASAKI Narie, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo

■NICT speakers
MORIAI Shiho, Strategic Planning Department Director / Diversity Promotion Office Director
MIZUNO Maya, Research Manager, Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory, Electromagnetic Standards Research Center, Radio Research Institute
IHARA Aya, Senior Researcher, Brain Function Analysis and Imaging Laboratory, Center for Neural Systems and Information Networks, Advanced ICT Research Institute

■Related Information
Fukui Prefecture Press Release (Link to External Site)