Within the 25 years because it was based, inclusiveness has been on the core of Cisco Networking Academy. Networking Academy’s world attain is wonderful, with college students in 190 nations and almost 12 thousand academies providing over 30 programs in as much as 27 languages. However making this system out there is just half the problem: making the demand inclusive is one other matter. This is the reason, in 2014, we launched the Girls Rock-IT initiative.
The World Financial Discussion board predicts that it’ll take one other 136 years to shut the worldwide gender hole, this quantity is drastically impacted by the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The info differs by nation, however ladies globally are usually underrepresented in Science, Know-how, Engineering, Arts, and Arithmetic (STEAM) schooling and employment. Deloitte World discovered that giant world know-how corporations will attain feminine illustration of their workforces of almost 33 % in 2022, up barely greater than 2 proportion factors from 2019. The Deloitte report acknowledges that “tech corporations might have to work even more durable to enhance these numbers” to recruit, rent, retrain and promote ladies, particularly in technical roles.
Girls Rock-IT was conceived to point out younger ladies that there are thrilling careers for ladies in tech, throughout all industries, and to spotlight inspiring and profitable ladies who’re innovating with tech and serving as nice function fashions.
I’m thrilled to report that since our first Girls Rock-IT occasion, the initiative has seen
greater than two million contributors, and 870,000 course enrollments.
Streaming over social media channels, attendees view reside displays and may take free introductory tech programs to earn digital badges and entry certification-aligned programs supplied by way of Networking Academy, equivalent to: Introduction to IoT, Introduction to Cybersecurity, Entrepreneurship, Linux, Python, and Networking Necessities.
The significance of seeing profitable ladies current at Girls Rock-IT can’t be overstated, however was perhaps greatest summed up by Chaylee Reeve, a college pupil majoring in House Engineering in Australia: “It’s the facility of seeing different ladies succeed. There’s nothing that may change that.”
And Girls Rock-IT doesn’t solely encourage, it will probably change lives. Agnes Chege was laid off from her customer support job at an electronics firm in Nairobi, Kenya early within the pandemic. After becoming a member of a Girls Rock-IT digital occasion, Agnes was impressed to take a free Introduction to Cybersecurity course from Cisco Networking Academy. Earlier than lengthy she was approached by a cybersecurity firm, supplied an internship, and now works as a Stage 1 Safety Operations Centre (SOC) Analyst.
“Truthfully, if Cisco Networking Academy didn’t exist I wouldn’t be in cybersecurity proper now. I had little or no information of it earlier than I took the Introduction to Cybersecurity course,” says Agnes.
Agnes is now additionally actively concerned in cybersecurity person consciousness coaching to totally different purchasers and has taken her ardour to see extra ladies be part of the sphere a notch larger by involving herself in mentorship applications for ladies in excessive faculties. She can be taking a free Python Necessities course on Abilities for All to enhance her programming expertise.
Girls Rock-IT is an ongoing program. Breaking down the obstacles to ladies’s success in tech is an ongoing problem, however there are indicators of enchancment. We began from a low base, and that offers me hope — the extra ladies who pursue STEAM programs and progress into tech jobs, the extra function fashions there are for younger ladies to be impressed to check STEAM topics, like Agnes.
Who doesn’t like a virtuous cycle?
Share:
