How Upskilling Lowers Barriers To Entry For Women In Tech

A Conversation With AWS’ Maureen Lonergan

In This Article

 

AWS’ Training Lead Maureen Lonergan Talks Upskilling

Lonergan also contributed to our special report, Creating Equity For Women At Work. Download it for a deeper exploration of these and other issues, with solutions for creating workplaces women don’t want to leave.
It’s never been more important to make tech careers accessible to women. While salary growth has slowed across the industry, the sector still offers some of the highest-wage jobs in the U.S. A typical STEM worker earns two-thirds more than people in other fields. And some of the highest-earning STEM occupations — like CS and engineering — have the lowest percentages of women workers (Pew).
 
As part of our suite of content about creating equity for women at work, including our special report, Maureen Lonergan shares her thoughts on upskilling as “a great equalizer,” especially for women. The vice president, Amazon Web Services Training and Certification, shares how AWS is lowering barriers by investing hundreds of millions of dollars to provide free cloud computing skills training to 29 million people by 2025.
The programs are available to all — from seasoned IT practitioners to people with no experience — and include more than 600 free, on-demand courses on AWS Skill Builder and multi-week, cohort-based workforce development programs.

 

Lonergan shares AWS/Gallup research about the dire skills gaps — an issue that’s slowing the pace of innovation across all industries, not just tech — and how upskilling and reskilling is a potential gap closer. At the same time, it could play a role in giving women the advancement they seek and, far too often, don’t find in the corporate American landscape.

Lowering Barriers To Entry

 

Q. The mass exodus of women from the workforce during Covid had many precipitating factors. Some portion of women who left were dissatisfied with disparities, including a lack of training that would empower their advancement. In one survey, among the women who said they left or intended to leave their jobs, 32% cited a desire for more advancement opportunities. Can you weigh in?

 

A. It was jarring to see that millions of women exited the workforce during the pandemic. Skills training has the potential to revert that. Upskilling and reskilling is a great equalizer, especially for the tech industry, in which women are still underrepresented. In fact, the number of women in tech roles today is lower than in the 1980s. That’s why we’re lowering barriers to entry with our programs and courses.

Upskilling and reskilling is important not only to the tech industry, but to every industry. A recent study by AWS and Gallup found advanced digital skills drive global economic gains of $6.3 trillion each year. For global organizations across sectors — from healthcare to retail — tech skills are more imperative than ever. There is a growing skills gap, and addressing it should be mission number one to ensure a stable future of work and resiliency.

 

If You Offer Upskilling, Encourage Failing Forward

 
Q. What advice would you give companies that seek to offer upskilling or reskilling for women?

A. Do it. There are a number of structural barriers to women remaining in the IT workforce, including unconscious bias, isolation, supervisory relationships, promotion processes and competing life responsibilities. To solve for this, forward-thinking organizations will pursue initiatives that create inclusive and equitable cultures. Offering upskilling and reskilling opportunities — and clearly promoting them — not only encourages learning and growth, it cements the fact that your organization is investing in and actively supporting a diverse workplace.

“Offering upskilling and reskilling opportunities — and clearly promoting them — not only encourages learning and growth, it cements the fact that your organization is investing in and actively supporting a diverse workplace.”

 

-Maureen Lonergan, vice president, AWS Training and Certification

Whether it’s a new mom just returning to the workforce or a young college graduate who is unsure where she can find success, the best way to invest in your company is to invest in your people. By providing accessible professional development opportunities that level the playing field, companies can create a healthy sense of individual worth and increase employee confidence and job satisfaction.

 

Q. What mistakes do companies make when building reskilling or upskilling programs?


A. The first is not having a diverse set of perspectives at the table. The second is not having a culture that allows employees to take risks and experiment. If you miss both, you miss opportunities to innovate. When you create a safe space for innovation and empower a culture of learning and experimentation, your employees take risks and know that failing is not only ok, it is expected. Being intentional in providing this type of environment is critical for disruptive innovation. Encourage failing forward so that all employees, in particular underrepresented groups like women, confidently try new things, share their learnings and failures unapologetically — and, at the same time, climb the ladder.

“Encourage failing forward so that all employees, in particular underrepresented groups like women, confidently try new things, share their learnings and failures unapologetically — and, at the same time, climb the ladder.”

-Maureen Lonergan, vice president, AWS Training and Certification

Who Runs The World?

 
Q. Women left the workforce — voluntarily and involuntarily — during Covid in what’s been called a mass exodus. Now that they’re recouping those job losses, things are looking up in terms of workforce participation, if not in terms of equity overall. But tell us: What would the world look like if women didn’t return or, worse, if they left once again?

A.
What’s scary to me is having one well-represented group make decisions, intentional or not, that will ultimately impact the underrepresented group. In this case, that means 50% of the world. Innovation that fails to address the needs or experience of women customers is not only scary, but a hard and current reality.
 
There is still a lot of work to do to attract female talent in STEAM, and skills building is an important step to getting women situated on the path to success. For organizations reading this, I’d reinforce that taking these steps is not only the right thing to do, it is also good business. Diverse organizations are more successful. Let’s create cultures that make space for ongoing learning and diverse idea representation.
 
Maureen Lonergan, vice president, Training and Certification, Amazon Web Services (AWS), leads a global team of builders committed to training the next generation of cloud talent. Learn more about AWS Training and Certification. In her role, Lonergan empowers AWS customers, partners and employees to gain the skills needed to leverage the AWS Cloud.

We explore all this and more in our report on Creating Equity for Women in Tech. Download it now.