Upskill, upskill, upskill — since COVID-19, it’s been the key message to emerge from countless workforce research reports, as well as from leading global consultancies and employment, HR and enterprise learning blogs.
Many organisations are sitting on untapped talent goldmines, so the story goes; upskilling and reskilling is the solution to retaining vital corporate knowledge and keeping pace with change.
But one question that’s often not answered is whom you should upskill. If you’re a tech company or you operate in or around the STEM sectors, one good answer is women.
You've heard this argument before
Women make up almost half the global workforce, but they remain significantly underrepresented in STEM. This is not news — governments, universities and industry bodies have spent years trying to solve the problem of how to increase the representation of women in STEM and STEM leadership roles and fix what McKinsey calls the broken rung on the career ladder.
But progress has been slow. While increasing numbers of women are now entering the tech sector, they still make up a small proportion of the industry and an even smaller proportion of STEM leadership roles. The time to act is now: Australia is facing a massive tech skills shortage, but many organisations may be overlooking the female talent available within their existing workforces.
What’s more, according to the 2021 Unlocking APAC’s Digital Potential report, women want to do the work to get the skills they need: while more male workers have undergone digital skills training since the pandemic, female workers are more motivated to do so. Providing equitable access to training is, according to McKinsey, one of three enablers that can smooth the way to more equitable advancement for female staff.
Empowering women
The argument for gender diversity in tech is the same as arguments for any type of diversity — more perspectives = problem-solving, product development and service delivery approaches that reflect the needs and desires of the real world. Women are also buyers of tech products and services; why, then, would you build a workforce that doesn’t include their insights?
This issue is being compounded at what PwC describes as ‘the dawn of AI’. Because AI models learn from humans, women’s voices will be a critical part of overcoming the biases that are built into AI technologies and to leverage the power of these tools to build a better, fairer world.
And there’s a clear economic rationale too: according to Forbes, companies that are highly gender diverse deliver better returns than their less diverse counterparts. In fact, a study from Boston Consulting Group found that that more diverse leadership teams lead to better innovation and financial performance.
Inclusion matters
In short, upskilling women can create opportunities to address workforce gender imbalances, save on the costs of hiring new talent from outside your organisation, and increase business performance. It’s also a chance to create the workforce you need by building a STEM curriculum that addresses your specific organisational skills gap.
| Start building a more diverse tech workforce with Plus UTS. Our expert trainers can help you define your team’s skill needs and create a customised STEM training program that can redefine your workforce. Visit Plus UTS or contact us to find out more. |
