Applications are now open for candidates to be part of the upcoming “Empowering Women to Lead Digital Transformation” and “Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security” programmes, running from March to May in Scotland.
The “Empowering…” initiative, launched by leadership coaching specialists Empowering-You, with the support of ScotlandIS, The Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate and the Scottish Digital Academy, is designed to address the lack of gender diversity in leadership roles across the technology profession in Scotland by supporting the creation of a community of empowered and empowering future female leaders.
Successful candidates will be part of a cohort of twenty four emerging and/or aspirational future digital leaders who take part in an intensive three month leadership programme, including dedicated one to one coaching sessions, two 2-day workshops and group projects, designed around “Challenges” which are set by the Programme Panel. Each cohort will then present the outputs from their work to an audience of their peers and the wider tech community at a national graduation event to be held in June 2022.
The programme is specifically designed to reflect the diverse nature of the profession, with previous cohorts including participants from a wide array of different digital disciplines, sectors and stages in their career journey. Previous participants have ranged from systems analyst, UX Designer and cyber engineer through to Director of Digital Transformation or Head of Information Assurance. Earlier cohorts have included representatives from central government departments and agencies, local authorities, regional and national health bodies, universities, professional bodies, finance, energy and telecommunications companies, as well as a wide range of technology providers.
There are no fees involved for any of the participants, with the cost of the programmes being supported by its partners across government and industry. The first of those partners for the Spring 2022 cohorts is the leading cloud computing and IT managed services provider Iomart, who are supporting the “Empowering Women to Lead Digital Transformation” programme. Iomart’s Group Financial Reporting Manager, Victoria Cahill will be joining the Head of the Scottish Digital Academy, Lee Dunn and ScotlandIS chief executive, Karen Meechan on the Programme Panel and helping to decide which applicants join the programme, as well as setting the “Challenges” they will face.
Commenting on Iomart’s decision to support the initiative, Ms Cahill said, “We operate in an industry where women are underrepresented, especially women in leadership roles, and that leaves us two options. Either we shrug our shoulders and accept that it’s an industry problem and we are only one business, or we lean into it and work with others to do something about it.
“We’re really pleased to be working with the Empowering Women in Leadership team and their partners to play our small role in supporting increased diversity and championing the exceptional female leaders we already have in our industry, and inspire future generations to pursue a leadership role in tech.”
The closing date for applications is the 4th of February and further details on both programmes, along with application links, can be found below: