Bloomberg Women’s Buy-Side Network Expands Python and BQUANT Bootcamp Initiative to its Australia and New Zealand Chapter

Bloomberg Women’s Buy-Side Network Australia and New Zealand chapter today kicked-off of its first Python and Bloomberg BQUANT computer programming bootcamp, designed to help female practitioners level up their coding skills and advance in the asset management industry. The initiative is open to women in finance of all coding levels, with a mission to arm them with the latest tools and expertise to advance their careers in finance.

Technology is rapidly being adopted across all industries, particularly the finance sector. In response to this trend, digital literacy, data management and computer programming languages are becoming one of the most sought-after skills amongst finance professionals. This bootcamp will offer training in Python, one of the most foundational computer programming languages in the financial world, and BQUANT, a Bloomberg interactive development platform that swiftly generates insights from data. Bloomberg also recently introduced BloombergGPT, its 50-billion parameter large language model, purpose-built from scratch for finance.

“We’re excited to launch the Python and BQUANT Bootcamp for BWBN’s Australia and New Zealand chapter,” said James Bell, Managing Director of Bloomberg Australia and BWBN Australia Advocate, “BWBN was founded on a mission to advance career growth for women on the buy-side, and this initiative is another way that we’re championing female leaders to break through the glass ceiling.”

“As a fellow female practitioner, this bootcamp fills a much-needed gap in the industry,” said Cassandra Crowe, Vice President at T. Rowe Price and BWBN Executive Member, “Future-proofing ourselves is essential in this day and age and this initiative is one of the ways that help women upskill and stay competitive.”

Originally launched by the Bloomberg Women’s Buy-Side Network Brazil chapter in 2022, the Python and BQUANT training certified 50 women and received overwhelming demand in the industry. This year the Bloomberg Women’s Buy-Side Network Australia and New Zealand chapter have brought the bootcamp to Australia and New Zealand, helping to upskill female professionals in the Asia-Pacific. The program has enrolled 41 candidates this year and consists of six weeks of learning through an e-platform compiled by Bloomberg’s engineers and BQUANT specialists. Candidates will be fully certified in Python upon completion of the course. For more information or if you would like to take part in similar training courses, please email bbg_sydney@bloomberg.net.

To learn more about technology at Bloomberg, please visit https://www.bloomberg.com/company/values/tech-at-bloomberg/.

About BWBN
The Bloomberg Women’s Buy-side Network (BWBN) is a global network led by a group of senior industry leaders who aspire to serve as role models for the next generation of women on the buy-side. As the first women’s buy-side network of its kind, it was created to advance the social purpose of the industry and spotlight its leading practitioners. The network promotes meritocracy and inclusion in the industry, and educates on the diversity of career paths within the buy side.

The network started in Asia in 2018, with chapters opened in Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Japan. From 2021, the network expanded globally with chapters added in Australia, New Zealand, California, New York and Brazil.