Upskilling is a means for professionals to enhance their skill sets and prepare them to better adapt to the constantly evolving job market demands.
 

However, not all professionals have access to such upskilling initiatives. A gender gap in upskilling exists, leaving much of the female workforce behind, resulting in inequitable upskilling due to factors such as the lack of access to or understanding of upskilling.
 
With case studies and success stories from large corporations and industry experts, all agree that the revolution to upskill will only succeed with the active participation of women.

Understanding Upskilling and its Benefits

Upskilling is a workplace trend involving training and development initiatives to expand and enhance employees' existing skill sets to minimize skill gaps. These learning and development initiatives are crucial for making an employee more efficient. Upskilling includes both soft skills and technical knowledge. For instance, improving an employee's emotional intelligence improves their collaboration in the working space.

Or identify and target specific technical skills missing within their team. Upskilling benefits include:

• Adaptation to new technologies
• Resilient teams
• Filling skill gaps
• Higher levels of productivity
• Improved employee retention
• Increase in employee engagement.
• Better job satisfaction
• Career growth
• Boost in employee confidence.
• Increase in ROI

Importance of Equitable Upskilling Today

Why is upskilling more critical now more than ever? Employee development has always been crucial in driving organizational and business success. However, with the rapid changes in new and innovative technology, such as artificial intelligence and increased digital integration, businesses are now increasing their upsliking initiatives. According to a Workable survey, in 2023, at least 68% of enterprises will invest in upskilling and reskilling training to adapt to organizational changes, and 65% will train workforces on emerging technologies.

The upskilling revolution is still in full force today. Large corporations such as Walmart announced in 2021 that they would invest approximately $1 billion over the next five years in upskilling learning and development initiatives through its Live Better U education program. Although investing in upskilling is crucial, some barriers and challenges exist in the drive to upskill women. Women play just as important a role in economic growth.

A McKinsey Institute report shows that women's participation in the workforce can potentially increase the global GDP by a staggering $12 trillion by 2025, highlighting women's significant importance in driving economic growth. Women in the US face barriers to upskilling, missing out on opportunities to advance their careers and contribute to business growth. Before diving deeper into the learning initiatives that empower women in the workforce with programs such as Girls Who Code and Women in STEM, it is crucial to understand why significant gaps exist in upskilling opportunities for women.

Gaps in Access to Upskilling for Women

As mentioned earlier, the labor market is constantly transforming. Consequently, there is a greater demand for new professional skill sets, with the World Economic Forum estimating that by 2025, at least 50% of all employees globally will have to undertake some form of upskilling. In addition to benefiting employees by giving them a competitive edge to future-proofing their careers, upskilling can potentially raise the global GDP by $6.5 trillion. However, creating a sustainable world economy can be realized with inclusive upskilling initiatives.

Unfortunately, equitable upskilling is not a reality, leaving much of the female workforce left behind in the upskilling revolution. According to a recent Reputation Leaders survey of 1,500 US workers aged 25-45, women encounter significant obstacles to upskilling. Results from the survey show that:
 

• Around 73% of the male workforce have access to upskilling opportunities.
• Only 56% of the female workforce has access to such initiatives.
• 55% of the women surveyed agree on the importance and significance of upskilling
• 37% of the women surveyed indicate using company-sponsored upskilling
• The "say/do gap" shows the willingness of female employees to upskill but failure to participate due to daily challenges in and outside of the workplace.

Undoubtedly, the Reputation Leaders survey addresses interesting points. Although there is a clear gender gap, it is essential also to note the "say/do gap." Yes, there is a willingness from the female workforce to undertake the upskilling initiatives provided to them by employers. However, there are several barriers, one of the major ones being work-life balance challenges such as family obligations (childcare support) and limited flexibility in work arrangements, with 41% of women in the survey citing a lack of time in the day to learn new skills.

Challenges to Career Growth and Development

Enhancing the skill sets of women in today's evolving workforce and job economy entails many aspects. First, failure to upskill women prevents career advancement opportunities—for instance, the opportunity to position themselves for senior and higher-level roles. Second, the gender gap will remain wide open, making women without the necessary soft or hard skills susceptible to poorly negotiating salaries, settling for lower compensation, and overall, having low job satisfaction.

Finally, women left behind in the upskilling revolution slows down social progress, reinforcing the negative gender roles and biases that see women discouraged from pursuing careers in fields traditionally dominated by men, such as piloting and construction. Despite the obstacles to successfully upskilling women, it's crucial to remember that upskilling creates better opportunities for career growth, satisfaction, and higher retention rates.

Therefore, employers must take the necessary steps and means to eradicate the barriers, provide the right opportunities for the female workforce, and promote inclusive upskilling. Next, we will look at the equitable professional development programs and learning initiatives that empower the female workforce.

Learning Initiatives for Women and Equity

Although roadblocks prevent equitable upskilling, employers can take steps to ensure that the female workforce gets equal access to upskilling opportunities. This would require employers, specifically HR leaders, to promote learning initiatives that empower women and equity, such as mentorship programs, skill-building workshops, and leadership development programs.

Implementing such initiatives requires, first and foremost, launching an integrated, well-structured, and relevant upskilling program. Employers can use the following strategies to implement effective learning initiatives for women:

Evaluating Needs and Aspirations

Start by identifying the needs of the targeted female group. For example, women looking to make an impact in their STEM careers or a group of women aspiring to obtain senior or C-level positions in male-dominated industries. After, recognize the specific barriers the targeted female professionals face in reaching their desired goals. Employers can develop tailored and relevant learning initiative programs by understanding these barriers.

Consult and Collaborate with Specialists

Partnering with organizations specializing in women's empowerment in the workforce is a great strategy to enhance the efficiency of learning initiative programs. These specialists provide expert insights regarding the best strategies to upskill women. The Girls Who Code is an excellent example of this, whose mission is to close the gender gap in the technology sector and redefine the perception of a programmer's typical appearance and role. The organization highlights that the number of female computer scientists has dropped to 24% today from 37% in 1995 and will continue if a passive approach is taken.

With 14.6 billion engagements globally, Girls Who Code continues to work towards closing the gender gap in tech jobs by 2030 with online materials, campaigns, publications, and advocacy efforts for students preparing to enter the workforce and professionals already in the industry. Since the organization's establishment in 2012, they have successfully created the most extensive network of women and nonbinary professionals pursuing computer science careers globally. Ultimately, Girls Who Code continues to play a vital role in breaking barriers that discourage women from pursuing STEM careers in an industry that sees 66% of men outnumbering women in the workforce.

Provide Relevant and Quality Learning Initiatives

To upskill women effectively, employers must provide training and development that are relevant in this sense that is in line with current market needs. For instance, focusing on industries with a strong need for skilled workers, such as IT. As technology advances, the need for qualified IT professionals will only continue to rise. This means employers must create inclusive and diverse workplaces, ensuring women can continuously upskill with the latest competencies and technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

By providing women equal opportunities through mentorship programs, skill-building workshops, coaching, and community support initiatives, women can thrive in their respective industries, close the skill gap, and ultimately maintain competitiveness in the unpredictable market. Earlier, we mentioned the Walmart Global Tech learning initiatives as an excellent example of upskilling and empowering women. The mega-corporation has made it a priority to continuously invest in its female workforce by developing them into leaders at both mid and top levels, an opportunity which many female professionals fail to materialize due to obstacles such as lack of networks and opportunities to find mentors and sponsors to enhance their prospects of career advancements, hostile work environment, subtle biases as well as sexual harassment.

Walmart Global Tech first evaluated the needs and aspirations of their targeted female workforce and consulted and partnered with specialists to create a long-term strategy and various initiatives to motivate and support women to upskill and advance their careers toward leadership roles.

Their empowHER initiative is six-month training for the company's high-potential women associates at mid-management levels, concentrating on exposure and experience. The development program includes virtual learning labs with tech upskilling, business acumen, and more tailored and relevant topics. Lastly, the W-Connect Walmart initiative for women incorporates industry experts as mentors and targets mid-management-level women to help them create a career-focused identity.

According to Walmart Global Tech India VP of Engineering and Strategy Bhanu Dhanaraj, these Walmart learning initiatives have empowered women in the company by "ensuring that all of these future women leaders have equal access to information, equal right to express their views, and equal opportunities to learn, contribute and grow in the organization…eliminate unconscious bias in every interaction they have and strive to treat them on par. Employers can increase their chances of creating an equitable working environment by providing relevant and quality learning initiatives to the female workforce.

Assess the Impact

It is also crucial to measure the success of upskilling women by setting specific metrics to measure the effectiveness of the learning initiatives to upskill women and empower them in the workforce. According to Nicolas Benbahani, a global people analytics leader, assessing the progression of skills over time and their contributions to the organization's objectives, goals, and return on investment is the best approach to measuring the success and value of upskilling. Benbahani adds that in 2023 alone, 70% of tech managers and 79% of HR directors utilized skill assessments to evaluate the success of upskilling success.

Furthermore, 40% of HR directors agreed that a successful technology skill development program must consist of an analysis identifying skill gaps and current skill levels.

This measurement approach can be utilized to upskill women efficiently. To summarise, the training metrics that can be utilized to assess the results of the learning initiatives to upskill women are using a pass/fail rate to determine the completion of assessments, scoring to estimate participants' performance, feedback on training experience, completion, and dropout rates, post-training performance and the ROI comparing the financial value of the acquired learning outcomes concerning the investment made to attain those results.

Fostering a working environment where women have equal means to advance into management positions via sponsored mentorship programs, skill-building workshops, and leadership development programs assists the female workforce in shattering the glass ceiling.

Employers must step up with effective learning initiatives to close the gender upskilling gap.

Thanks to ongoing learning initiatives from Walmart and Girls Who Code, it's safe to say that it is possible to successfully upskill women, empower them, and achieve equitable upskilling. Yes, obstacles exist, such as cultural and societal biases that not only restrict but discourage women from attaining leadership roles or succeeding in male-dominated occupations and industries. For that reason, it is important for employers to play their part in creating a workplace culture with policies that foster equal opportunities between men and women when it comes to upskilling.

Ensuring that the female workforce is empowered through learning initiatives means being provided with company-sponsored mentorship programs, skill-building workshops, and leadership development programs. Additionally, ensuring that the female workforce has access to employee networking opportunities with role models, such as women in tech, aids in creating relevant and inclusive upskilling initiatives.

Employers must also implement policies regarding parental leave, anti-sexual harassment, flexible working arrangements, and employer-supported childcare to ensure equitable upskilling. Finally, measuring the success of learning initiatives is important to ensure effective and effective upskilling.

Author Bio

Gergo Vari is the CEO & Founder of Lensa.

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