WOMEN AND CAREER @ 4

When a man looks into a mirror, the image reflects who he is today. But it also reveals who he used to be. Although appearances change, many of the underlying characteristics remain the same. The same is true with Women and Career, as we celebrate our 4th anniversary and reflect on who we are.

With the vision of empowering and supporting young women and girls to develop and start their career and a mission to source for and amass numerous resources geared towards reaching and empowering more females globally, we have diligently and consistently carried out numerous projects in this regard.

Today, we have the utmost pleasure of highlighting in written and visual representation – but in no special order – our top seven most impactful projects since inception.

1. Intensive Mentorship Program

In 2018, Women and Career – in partnership with the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa – launched an intensive mentorship program, where participants all over the world were welcomed and mentored on career development and advancement for one year.

This project was successfully executed, such that two of the participants (students of UNIMAT) went on to develop an alcohol-detecting device to curb drink-driving just a few months after completion of the program. 3 years down the line, participants are still innovating and waxing strong in their respective careers.

2. Women Supporting Women Video Series

In 2017, Women and Career birthed a most inspiring movement; the women supporting women video series. For this project, we interviewed trailblazing women from all walks of life; getting them to highlight winning tips for career development and advancement in their respective fields. This turned out to be a most uniquely successful project as to this day, these videos continue to be a source of inspiration and guidance for young women starting and growing their careers. In celebration of this milestone, Women and Career hosted all our video guests to dinner for the International Women’s Day in October 2017.

3. Design-thinking and A.I Bootcamp

In the early part of 2020, Women and Career identified a widening gap in the tech field. Women were consistently underrepresented in this sector. Seeking to tackle this challenge, we launched a Design-thinking and A.I Bootcamp in partnership with IBM.

Our participants were diverse and spanned across two countries; Ghana and Nigeria.

Modules such as people-centred design, problem discovery, design research, design analysis, idea generation etc were covered. The highlight of this project was receiving testimonials from participants as to the impact of this project on their career.

4. Annual IDG Essay Competition

In line with our vision and mission, Women and Career sought to empower young high school female students by launching the #IDG Annual Essay Competition. Participants wrote a 700-word essay on the topic; “The Future We Want: The Time is now”. This essay competition was open to all regions and countries. As such, we received submissions from over 15 countries and 5 continents. Three best essays were selected and their writers were awarded cash prizes and other gifts. Having launched this project as an annual event, we look forward to scaling this project by 50% this year.

5. PadAGirl Drive

In celebration of the IDG2020, Women and Career organized an SRHR event in schools in designated parts of the country; where we reached over 300 underprivileged girls and provided sanitary care packages. The highlight of this event was the close interaction of the students with our team. From this interaction and subsequent Q&A series, five of the girls went home with a deeply enriching 7 categories Amazon Bestselling Career book titled Be Fearless: Giving Yourself Permission to be You written by our founder; Jane Egerton-Idehen to guide them on their career journey.

6. UI/UX Graphics Design Training

In February 2021, following the lifting of the lockdown restrictions in most countries and the glaring economic meltdown, Women and Career designed a solution to improve the economic standing of women irrespective of their location by holding intensive UI/UX Graphics design classes for participants. Though only two months since we held this project, our participants have gone on to establish their respective graphics design firms and testimonials from them showed the successful execution of this project.

7. Women Updemic Challenge

The emergence of the pandemic in 2020 caused great havoc in every aspect of life. From the restrictions that most countries put in place to the painful transition to the virtual workplace and even to the widespread retrenchment of staff, adaptability to the new reality was a common problem for humans; one that was obviously affecting the psychological wellbeing of some people. In light of that knowledge, Women and Career launched the Women Updemic Challenge (#Updemic2020). Females all over the world were encouraged to send in short video entries talking about how the pandemic has affected them and highlighting their various coping mechanisms. Selected winners were rewarded accordingly.

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