Following on from the success of the inaugural “Empowering Women to Lead Digital Transformation” Programme, a second cohort has now been confirmed to run in the Autumn and the call for applications from women who aspire to be the next generation of digital leaders has launched today.
The Programme, delivered by leadership coaching specialists Empowering-You and supported by ScotlandIS, The Scottish Government and the Scottish Digital Academy, offers women in early-mid career stage roles the opportunity to take part in a free of charge, intensive 12-week programme which includes dedicated one to one coaching, group workshops with peers from across the public and private sector, guest industry speaker presentations and the opportunity to collaborate on developing solutions on societal “Challenges” that are set by the Programme panel.
The response to the first “Empowering…” Programme has been so positive that the organisers have also announced that a second Programme, focusing specifically on addressing the lack of gender diversity in leadership roles within the Cyber Security sector, will also run in the Autumn in parallel with the Digital Transformation programme. The “Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security” Programme is also being backed by government and industry in recognition of how much still needs to be done in tackling issues around diversity and inclusion within the cyber security sector.
Commenting on the launch of the new Cyber Security focused “Empowering…” Programme and the decision by ScotlandIS to support it, the Head of Scotland’s Cyber Cluster, Ciara Mitchell said:
“With women making up only 20% of the cyber workforce currently and with the skills shortage increasing all the time, it is imperative that we encourage females to remain in cyber security and to encourage more to join. This course will support the participants to continue in their cyber security careers and help ensure that females are working in roles at all levels in the industry.”
Applications are encouraged from women working in digital or cyber security roles in any size of organisation and regardless of whether they work in the public, private or third sector. Ensuring that the cohort reflects a real diversity of experience, backgrounds and workplace cultures is at the core of the Programme. In order to ensure that, all places are free of charge to participants, with funding for the Programme coming from industry and public sector Partners including the Scottish Digital Academy and Scottish Government.
Both the Digital Transformation and the Cyber Security programmes will run between September and November of this year, with applications opening this week and closing on the 30th of July.
With both Programmes open to all ScotlandIS members, interim CEO Karen Meechan called for members to raise awareness of the opportunity with their staff and to identify and support prospective candidates in applying saying:
“Diversity in our sector has long been recognised as a challenge but despite widespread recognition of the issue we are still a long way from resolving it. Gender balance in particular is still a major problem with women only accounting for 23% of the workforce in digital technologies roles. While there are great initiatives underway, there is more we can do. The Empowering-You programme is another piece of the puzzle that will enable our leadership teams of the future to be more diverse and inclusive.”
For more information on both Programmes, including how to apply, go to:
Empowering Women to Lead Digital Transformation – https://www.empowering-you.co.uk/ewldt-scotland-autumn-2021
Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security – https://www.empowering-you.co.uk/ewlcs-scotland-autumn-2021