Goldman Sachs is teaching its female analysts how to code

It's not just JPMorgan. Goldman Sachs is also offering its juniors the opportunity to learn how to code, but only if they're women.

As part of its partnership with charitable organisation Code First Girls, Goldman Sachs is rolling out evening coding courses for young female staff who are interested in learning how to program.

In a memo sent last week to Goldman analysts, Jo Hannaford, head of EMEA technology at Goldman Sachs, invited female analysts aged 26 and below (in line with Code First Girls' age parameters) to apply to take part in evening coding courses in introductory web development, Ruby and Python in London. Each course is eight weeks long and involves one evening a week. Female analysts are being asked to sign-up on a first come, first serve basis. 

Goldman's initiative follows JPMorgan's decision to teach 300 new analysts in its asset management division and a third of all analysts entering its investment bankig division how to code in Python. “Coding is not for just tech people, it is for anyone who wants to run a competitive company in the 21st century,” said Mary Callahan Erdoes, head of JPMorgan Asset Management, when the initiative was launched last year. 

Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, is redesigning its trading floor to bring its traders closer to its technologists. 

Hannaford said she is very excited to be able to offer the courses to Goldman's female analysts, although there's little indication yet that coding lessons will become a standard part of Goldman's analyst program. 

Last month we reported that Goldman Sachs has increased pay for first year technologists with masters degrees to £98k ($128k). This is seemingly causing some friction with more senior technologists who are paid a similar amount, and to analysts in front office jobs at Goldman, who complain of being paid less. 

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