Nothing can stop us: Empowering early career professionals in times of pandemic
Imagine a world where you see just as many women at STEM conferences as men. Just as many women in corporate leadership positions as men. Just as many women securing scholarship opportunities as men. At VOICES, we are working to create a world like this: and we do so by empowering women at the early stages of their career. Now…with the current paradigm of working remotely you may wonder how a volunteering community like ours can actually empower, only using screens and microphones. We will show you in our commentary below!'
At its core, VOICES is promoting career development for young professional women across industries. We believe that building strong communities is a key element of this. Communities provide access to networking opportunities, where role models may arise and professional resources can be further shared.
In the past six months, we carried out the first part of the VOICES Curriculum. In this first term our webinar series covered topics from mental health, through negotiation and entrepreneurial skills to financial literacy. These educational workshops served as a platform for participants to interact and to learn about skills and topics that are less covered in high schools’ and universities’ formal curricula.
Before the pandemic our work was restricted to Ireland and the United Kingdom. So in a way the online format allowed us to grow and reach a rather international audience, with participants coming from 35+ countries. We also managed to co-host webinars with women empowerment organisations from around the world, such as Challenging Gender Stereotypes (CGS) from the Global Shapers Yokohama Hub, and with Moneral from Mexico City. You can watch some of the sessions in the following Youtube playlist.
Participant feedback showed that interactive sessions with concrete learning outcomes can really work in a remote format: 94% of our attendants thought that this is the way forward, shaping the VOICES community into a safe space where participants can share their perspectives on sensitive topics such as experiencing Imposter Syndrome or managing personal finance and investments (read more about impostor syndrome here.)
We also had the chance to speak to some of our previous participants to understand what brought them to the VOICES Community. Saraniya Thayaparan, one of our Term 1 participants, shared that she joined the VOICES Curriculum to learn skills that are not really covered at school.
“I think you should always be setting aside time for your own development; even if work is busy; investing in yourself is important. I remember when I signed up for VOICES, what stood out for me were the topics that you guys were covering. Weren’t just like the standard ones you get in others webinars; for instance, you were covering financial literacy. I thought that’s something so important and not enough people talk about or not enough people think is important. I think that’s what drew me to VOICES.”
Saraniya Thayaparan
Laura Seben, another engaged participant from Term 1, told us that having lunch-time webinars really allowed her to find the time for self-development and have casual conversations and online serendipity.
“I’m always looking for new opportunities, VOICES was definitely new and enjoyable for me. The webinars and the workshops were really relevant to my situation, beyond my expectations. My favourite event was the impostor syndrome webinar, where I just got that feeling that, okey, I’m not alone” Laura Seben
After wrapping up Term 1, we are now ready to launch VOICES Term 2 — The Early Career Toolkit. This 6-months-long programme will be a step further in building the VOICES Community, creating even stronger connections between participants and speakers. We will focus on interactive and hands-on sessions about leadership and communication skills, interviewing techniques and how to develop a growth mindset. You can register now for The Early Career Toolkit series here!