Supermums is a Finalist in the Diversity Initiative of the Year Category in the Women in IT Awards
By Jennifer Wood
We are delighted to be a finalist in the Women in IT Awards. We are shortlisted in the Diversity Initiative of the Year Award, which recognises the contribution our Supermums programme makes to reskilling mums to help them achieve flexible well-paid career roles in the IT sector.
The winner will be announced on 30th January at the Awards Ceremony.
Heather, Managing Director of Economic Change and the founder of Supermums comments…
‘It is incredible to be recognised for our work at Supermums in these Awards. From launching the idea just two years ago, I’m delighted to have led and inspired many other mums to follow in my footsteps and carve out a flexible career in the Salesforce industry to achieve their aspirations.
There are such a wide range of roles in the sector to suit mums from all backgrounds… the opportunities are endless. I had a drive to design an employability programme to empower mums to break into the sector and I’m so proud to see it really benefiting people. The recognition and support from Salesforce and the Women in IT judges is invaluable and gives me the confidence to really expand our programme to help many more mums in the future.’
So why is this important…
About the Women in IT Awards
The percentage of female IT leaders globally remains at 9% – a figure that has changed very little in the past few years despite one third of organisations claiming to have diversity initiatives.
The Women in IT Awards series aims to tackle this issue and redress the gender imbalance, by showcasing the achievements of women in the sector and identifying new role models.
Organised by business technology site Information Age, the awards were launched as a platform to celebrate women in technology. Since its launch, in 2015, the Women in IT Awards have showcased women in technology in London, New York, Ireland and Silicon Valley. This year the awards series will expand to celebrate women in technology in Asia, Berlin and Canada for the first time.
This growing awards series acts as a flagship and high-profile platform to support the industry in its mission to move the dial on gender.
About Salesforce Supermums
Only one in six tech specialists in the UK are women, yet they make up nearly half (47%) of the UK workforce. Fewer than one in ten of those currently occupy senior management positions. There is a still a great deal of work to do to encourage diversity within technology and Salesforce Supermums is a programme which does exactly that.
Run by Economic Change, Salesforce Supermums is a pioneering digital skills training programme which empowers mums to get back to work with Salesforce CRM Admin skills, coaching and work experience. The programme helps to increase the number of women in technology and shines a spotlight on what’s possible for working women. It has empowered a highly experienced and flexible Salesforce workforce, as well as helped meet demand for Salesforce skills amongst non-profit organisations.
The programme was founded in the UK in 2016 by mother of two, Heather Black. When Heather’s eldest daughter was born, she continued to work flexibly around her family. She is not alone in doing so: 2017 ONS figures showed almost three quarters of women with dependent children in the UK are in either full or part-time work.
The six-month process sees mums participate in 40 days of virtual learning, when they are trained and mentored by Salesforce consultants and administrators who help them to learn and apply new Salesforce skills. Crucially, mums participating in the programme gain valuable work experience on a live CRM implementation project for a not-for-profit client. Upon graduation, the Supermums recruitment team help participants find a Salesforce role that meets their time demands and pressures, providing interview coaching and support as they start their new role.
After qualifying as a certified Salesforce Administrator, participants can move into a wide range of roles from project management to business analysis and development, depending on their professional background, qualifications and expertise.
What are the success factors of this initiative?
As of January 2019 the programme has attracted 78 trainees and provided 2736 pro-bono hours, worth over £234k to 57 non-profits. So far, 39 trainees have completed and 28 still are still learning. Of those completed 25 are now certified and 27 are working within Salesforce-related jobs.
The perceived importance and value of the scheme internally has attracted the support of the wider salesforce eco-system with over 40 volunteers signing up to help mentor and train the mums
The programme is having a real impact amongst working parents, giving them career options and the chance to take on new challenges at the same time as managing the demands of parenthood. What makes Supermums unique is that it is helping bring the flexibility offered by being able to train and work entirely remotely to a section of the workforce that can really benefit – new mums.
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