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Press Release31 May 2023Siemens AGJohannesburg
Siemens joins forces with UN Women: Upskilling program for +600 African girls in ICT and work readiness skills kicks off
The UN Women – African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI)
will train young women between the ages of 17 and 25 in digital literacy,
programming and work-readiness skills. Thus, they will be empowered to become
programmers, coders and designers so that they can take up studies and careers
in the ICT sector. South Africa will be starting their coding camps in June
after the kick off event, followed by Rwanda, Kenya, Senegal and Uganda. After
the two-week AGCCI curriculum, the EmpowHer Africa program begins which
includes coding as well as further digital and work readiness skills in
specific workshops. The learning content goes from cybersecurity, through to
career options in IT to low coding. The program is further supported by SieMent
EmpowHer, our Siemens mentorship program.
During the event, Sabine
Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens Sub-Saharan Africa, said the program offers enormous
potential to bridge the ICT gender gap in the African continent by training the
beneficiaries from these countries: “We are pleased to partner with UN Women
Germany to undertake concerted and systematic action to create development
opportunities, particularly for girls and young women, and to address the
disadvantages they face. I'm confident that this program will help break down
the barriers of entry on the continent, facilitate access to education and
technology, and heed the call to address gender inequalities,” Dall’Omo added.
Elke Ferner, President UN
Women Germany said: "We’re thrilled to have partnered with Siemens to
invest in the education and empowerment of girls in Africa – a crucial driver
of sustainable development in the continent. By working together, we can enable
young women to develop future-oriented competencies in a protected environment
and empower them with the skills needed to succeed at national and
international levels. Most importantly, we raise awareness that taking a stand
for women’s rights and educational equality is a social duty for all of us.”
In addition, Siemens
South Africa has designed a new mentoring program “SieMent EmpowHer” which
works hand in hand with the AGCCI. This initiative will connect experienced female
mentors from different Siemens locations around the world with the 600 young
women participating in the upskilling in Africa. “With the introduction of
SieMent EmpowHer, we will help bridge the gap between academia and the
workplace. By empowering and upskilling young women through mentorship across
the African continent, we will help improve their employability by equipping
them with a set of skills that will help them generate an income, develop
resilience, and contribute to the reboot of transformative growth in Africa,” commented
Dall’Omo.
Through
the SieMent EmpowHer program coupled with the coding camps, the young women will
be offered trainings and workshops in robotics, cybersecurity, animation, 3D
printing, gender equality as well as women empowerment, leadership, work readiness
and communications.
“I am proud to see our company’s continued commitment to the development of
young African women who don’t necessarily have access to skills development
opportunities like these. For a country like South Africa and many others in Sub-Sahara
Africa, youth unemployment remains a barrier to progress in the region,” said
Natalia Oropeza, Chief Cybersecurity and Chief Diversity Officer of Siemens AG.
“Teaming up with UN Women on this initiative is helping us to enable young
women to gain access to technology, while indirectly addressing the issue of
inequality,” she added.
For further information on UN Women Germany: https://unwomen.de (available in German only)
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Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 170 years. The company is active around the globe, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization. One of the largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is a leading supplier of efficient power generation and power transmission solutions and a pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry. With its publicly listed subsidiary Siemens Healthineers AG, the company is also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment – such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems – and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT. In fiscal 2018, which ended on September 30, 2018, Siemens generated revenue of €83.0 billion and net income of €6.1 billion. At the end of September 2018, the company had around 379,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at
www.siemens.com.