The Minister for Equality, Samantha Sacramento, met with the all-female team from the Digital Skills Academy who have won a place in the CyberCenturion Grand Finals ahead of their departure to the competition in UK this week.

CyberCenturion is a national cybersecurity education initiative for 12 to 18 year olds in the UK and the UK Overseas Territories and is organized by STEM Learning.

The team which is composed of three students, Lorian Fadul-Risk, Evgenia Grigorova, and Sonia Szetela, will travel to the UK next week for the finals. The students have already participated in the initial online qualification rounds which saw a total of 250 teams competing.

Minister Sacramento met with the students as well as Jared Cruz, Head of School (CyberSecurity) at the Digital Skills Academy and Stewart Harrison, Director and Founder of the Digital Skills Academy to commend them all for their concerted efforts to date and to wish them every success in the upcoming competition.

Stewart Harrison, said, “I am very proud of the students from the Digital Skills Academy who are heading off to the CyberCenturion Finals this week. They are fantastic role models for future generation of girls in Tech and this is very important in order to close the gender digital skills gap that exists locally and world-wide. Tech is a rewarding and well remunerated career path and it is important to ensure that entry into this field is promoted and facilitated for girls and women. I would like to take this opportunity to thank their instructor, Jared Cruz, who has played an instrumental role in training the students for this competition this year.

Minister Sacramento said, “I am delighted to have been able to meet the three students who will be travelling to the CyberCenturion Finals this week. I am hugely impressed with the fact that they have already seen off stiff competition from over 250 teams in order to make it to the Finals. Addressing the under-representation of women and girls in technology is one of the main strands of the Ministry of Equality’s Gender Equality Strategy. I, therefore, look forward to continue working closely with the Digital Skills Academy to help close the gender digital skills gap. Raising the profile and the visibility of women in Tech plays a key role in helping to narrow that gap and I am very pleased to have been able to meet the team in person and to wish them the very best of luck. I am sure that they will do Gibraltar proud.”