Electricity and Control March 2024

RESKILLING, UPSKILLING + TRAINING

Bridging the gender gap in digital skills

T echnology and ICT careers are on the rise, increasing the need for digital skills. Despite this surge, a significant gender gap exists in the industry, where women are either marginalised or overlooked for job opportunities, and the skills shortage per sists. Siemens and UN Women joined forces to bridge the gender gap by upskilling young African women in South Africa, Sene gal, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda through the African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI). Last year, Siemens and UN Women launched the AGCCI programme which, during the year, successfully trained over 600 young women from the five African countries. Through coding camps covering various IT, cybersecurity, and coding training sessions, participants gained valuable work-readiness skills, mentorship and exposure to potential employment opportunities at Siemens. With the first phase of the AGCCI concluded, Phase 2 kicks in. This will see Siemens sponsor additional IT and cybersecuri ty training and provide a comprehensive six-month mentorship programme, SieMent EmpowerHer. Participants will have access to individual and group mentoring sessions and masterclasses taught by subject matter experts. Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens Sub-Saharan Africa, said, “We realise that there are still countless barriers preventing young African women from exploring careers in the technology sector, which hinders us from bridging the gender inequality gap that exists across the continent in this sector. That’s why we’ve in vested in facilitating access to education and technology to em power more young African women to become agents of change within their communities and on the global stage.” Making an impact across Africa The launch of SieMent EmpowHer was accompanied by a pan el discussion, where representatives from UN Women Germany, UN Women South Africa, and Siemens participated in the ‘Power of Mentorship’ discussion. In the first phase of the AGCCI, two week coding camps covering various aspects of IT, cybersecuri ty, and coding, were rolled out in the five participating countries. Allianz is the official sponsor of data access for participants, and Mendix has created a mentorship platform to track learning goals. Siemens, Stiftung, LawPilots and MetaCompliance have also sponsored additional learning content. An update on progress - South Africa completed its first AGCCI coding camp in July 2023, with 40 young women and completed its second coding camp in October 2023, involving 50 girls. All the participants gained invaluable skills. - Uganda saw 50 young women finish their coding camp in July last year. - In Senegal the coding camp was conducted in May 2023, providing IT, coding, and cybersecurity training for 47 girls. - In Kenya the first coding camp wrapped up in August 2023, with 50 participants completing the programme. The second coding camp will run this year.

- In Rwanda the coding camp concluded in November last year, having trained 50 girls. Siemens says the young women who completed the initial camp can now register directly with the multinational technology group to continue with the additional sponsored content and the mentorship programme. This second phase will include a six month extended training programme covering additional IT and cybersecurity training and the SieMent EmpowHer mentorship programme. The programme offers young women a range of benefits – they gain hard and soft skills and lessons from experience in the working environment. - Learning from other’s experiences - Learning new skills and new ways of doing things - Developing strong communication and interpersonal skills - Broadening their networks - Increasing self-confidence and self-awareness Young girls in a coding class – part of the AGCCI which will reach 600 school-going girls in five African countries. Creating long-term change According to Siemens Sub=Saharan Africa, the SieMent Empow Her programme has, over time, benefitted countless women, in cluding two beneficiaries the company employed permanently in 2022. “SieMent EmpowHer changed my life. It empowered me to find permanent employment as a System Engineer at Siemens. My career has progressed significantly, and I am now part of a team building a Siemens Learner Management System using Mendix, and I’m a SieMent Peer Mentor. This initiative has been a turning point in my professional journey,” says Vuyiswa Gwadiso. Another beneficiary, Kayla Thompson, adds, “SieMent Em powHer empowered me to secure permanent employment at Siemens and helped me advance rapidly in my career. The soft skills development included in the programme has also proven invaluable, making me a well-rounded professional.” Sabine Dall’Omo concludes: “We look forward to continuing to make an impact in the lives of young African women through the next phases of our AGCCI. By investing in initiatives that empow er and upskill the future generation through mentorship across the continent, we can equip them with skills that will help them generate an income, help improve their employability, help them develop resilience, and contribute to rebooting transformative growth in Africa.” - Learning to self-reflect - Improving goal-setting.

For more information visit: www.siemens.com

MARCH 2024 Electricity + Control

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