The Cisco Networking Academy Works with UNIFEM in Jordan and Morocco to Help Get Women into IT
October 27, 2008
By Mike Stone
The Cisco® Networking Academy® and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) are working to help more women work in IT in developing nations. As this collaboration develops, both organizations are finding is that it is not just technical skills that count.
In countries where social restrictions on time, autonomy and mobility have historically posed a challenge for women entering the workforce, soft skills such as interpersonal communications can be every bit as important as IT know-how in finding employment.
One example, called 'Achieving E-Quality in the ICT Sector', has helped boost job placement rates for women by combining industry-recognized network training with soft-skills training including instruction on résumé writing, personal presentation and interview techniques.
When they finish their studies, students also get career counseling and guidance on finding jobs in the market.
Launched in Jordan in 2002, under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah in association with the Cisco Foundation and the Jordanian Government, the E-Quality project has drawn support from prestigious institutions in Jordan, such as the Princess Sumaya University for Technology, one of the country's leading universities in IT.
"When I enrolled for the CCNA training at the institute, I did not realize how much I would really benefit from these courses."
In addition, UNIFEM signed a collaboration agreement with the University of Jordan to establish two fully-equipped labs dedicated to the scheme, with an ongoing commitment to achieving gender equality in IT skills.
Two academies that fall under the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) also embraced the scheme, allowing some of Jordan and Palestine's most impoverished people to pursue careers in IT.
Although not exclusively aimed at women, the project was intended to foster women's involvement in the IT sector. And thanks to its hard-and-soft-skills approach to training, to date it appears to have been successful in this aim.
By February 2008 the program could boast 2685 CCNA® graduates, 1483 of whom were female-a participation rate of more than 55 percent.
In a first phase of the initiative, involving just 10 academies, approximately 1000 students participated in the career counseling activities and some 400 found work in the IT job market.
A similar project, launched by the United States aid agency USAID and Cisco in 2004 and now run in association with UNIFEM, is E-Parite in Morocco, which again is designed to encourage girls and women into IT and support them by providing soft skills training for jobs.
There are currently 10 institutions participating in the program, with more than 700 women students and graduates, including Saïda Aït Mamma, who successfully completed her CCNA studies in 2006 and found a job as technical assistant with an IT company.
A graduate of Morocco's ENSET Mohammedia academy, Saïda is now looking forward to a rewarding career in an industry that has typically been dominated by men. "It is true that my Cisco training has been a big plus for finding a job," she says.
"I won't forget all the things I have learnt thanks to this project, from the Cisco training to the soft skills workshop. When I enrolled for the CCNA training at the institute, I did not realize how much I would really benefit from these courses."
In 2007 E-Parite's project coordinator, Omar Rhoulami, claimed that the program had been a "complete success".
At the same time, United States Ambassador Thomas T. Riley toured Morocco's Errachidia local academy, part of the E-Parite project. Located 500 km from the capital Rabat, this academy has trained some 135 students in CCNA over the last two years.
Sixty percent of graduates have been women. These collaborations with UNIFEM are part of wider attempts to by the Networking Academy to help bring about gender equality through skills training, particularly in developing nations.
Several countries, from Togo to Saudi Arabia, now boast women-only Networking Academies and last year saw the launch of the first all-female regional academy, in Lahore, Pakistan, which is chartered to provide training and support to other academies in the region.
Such attempts to boost the number of women in IT and networking respond to a growing need for skilled engineers worldwide.
Networking skills gaps are set to become increasingly acute in many developing countries because of infrastructure rolling out as part of modernization programs.
The first comprehensive study into skills gaps in the Middle East, Pakistan and South Africa, conducted by IDC on behalf of Cisco in 2006, predicted that by 2009 there could be a need for an additional 265,000 skilled engineers to help drive economic growth in the areas studied.
Pakistan, Jordan and Kuwait were all tipped to experience skills gaps in excess of 40 percent by 2009. With such critical shortages on the horizon, giving IT a woman's touch could be imperative to helping growth in many of these nations.
Mike Stone is a freelance journalist located in Barcelona, Spain.
