At a summer camp held at Viimsi School outside Tallinn, hundreds of young girls gathered as Taavi Kotka, a key architect of Estonia’s digital transformation, opened the event with a simple question: “Is everyone ready for camp?” The enthusiastic response set the tone for three days of intensive learning, where classrooms became robotics labs, playgrounds turned into drone-testing grounds, and artificial intelligence workshops replaced traditional lessons.
Bridging the Gender Gap in Technology
The camp is the flagship activity of the HK Unicorn Squad, a non-governmental organization founded in 2018 by Taavi Kotka and his wife Kerstin. The initiative provides free technology education exclusively for girls, aiming to attract more women into science and engineering fields. Estonia, like many European nations, faces a persistent gender gap in tech, and the Unicorn Squad is a direct response to that challenge.
During a robotics workshop, Kotka observed as groups of teenagers focused on building and programming toy-like robots. “They have to figure it out by themselves, with zero clue, in 30 minutes. It’s solvable, I did it in 40 minutes,” he joked, emphasizing the hands-on, problem-solving approach that defines the programme.
Kotka, who served as Estonia’s first Chief Information Officer and now advises the government on its national AI strategy, sees this work as a natural extension of his career. “Solving country level problems is an interesting challenge for me. Getting more girls into engineering is a national issue. Engineers don't just solve mechanical problems, we can also fix social problems,” he said.
The project was born from a personal experience: when Kotka’s daughter Helena and the only other girl in her primary school’s robotics club were expelled after the group was reduced, he decided to create a space designed specifically for girls. Helena has since completed the programme and now teaches younger participants.
Building a Competitive Future
Helena plans to study medicine, but she sees technology as integral to her future career. “Every sector needs more and more technology,” she explained while teaching a group how to fly drones. “If I were to become a surgeon, more and more operations are being done with the help of robots, or with AI. I'll have an advantage over other medical students who haven't had as much exposure to such things.”
To date, around 5,000 girls have completed the Unicorn Squad programme, roughly one out of ten Estonian girls aged 8 to 14. The full impact will only be measurable in a decade, Kotka acknowledged. In the meantime, he and the HK Unicorn Squad leaders aim for “every Estonian child to learn modern technology,” he said. “It has to become a government project.”
Estonia’s broader tech ecosystem is already a European success story, with innovations like e-residency and digital voting. The country also tops global climate rankings among European nations, reflecting its commitment to forward-looking policies. The Unicorn Squad adds a social dimension to this tech-driven identity, addressing a critical skills gap.
Kotka’s ambitions extend beyond Estonia. He believes that empowering girls with tech skills can strengthen the entire European Union’s competitiveness. As European leaders urge an end to fragmentation to build global champions, initiatives like the Unicorn Squad offer a grassroots model for nurturing talent from a young age.
Invited to speak at his daughter’s high-school graduation, Kotka summarized his underlying ambitions: to create a generation of Estonian women who are not just consumers of technology but creators and leaders. For a small nation of 1.3 million, that vision could have outsized impact.
