Amman

The Information & Communications Technology Association (int@j) announced the launch of a specialized social platform promoted as “SHETECHS Role Models and Stars” featuring 17 women in the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) sector as Role Models.

This platform, part of the SHETECHS initiative, primarily aims at sharing knowledge and experience and encouraging dialogue related to developing the capabilities of women working or looking to work in the ICT domain. The platform will also pave the way for the Tech women of Jordan to share and exchange their expertise on a wider scale.

int@j aspires to get hundreds of tech-females enroll in the SHETECHS new social platform for empowering women, whether as leaders, employees or entrepreneurs through inspirational talks and discussions to motivate other women working or seeking employment in the technology industry.

Ruba Darwish, a member of the int@j board of directors, stated that the association- with the participation of all parties- strives to enhance women’s contribution to the economy taking into consideration that according to the latest study announced by the association, female workers comprise 33 percent of the (ICT) sector workforce.

All recent and future women graduates will add value to any company, as they will possess the skills related to coding, cybersecurity and or other new technologies which the industry seeks.

Ms. Darwish also expressed her pride in the tech-females who have been selected as Role Models to inspire other women. She noted that they would highlight the achievements and struggles that they experienced during their career path.

She stressed that int@j adopted clear criteria for selecting candidates, mainly those who led or contributed to running a tech-related project within an organization, or an entrepreneur who founded / co-founded a startup, or as a freelancer.

Candidates must also have minimum two years of experience in programming, computer science, or software engineering that is pertinent to the fields of technology, information systems, and other relevant domains within the sector.

She added that the candidates should be tech-females who possess the will and ability to inspire other women and share their expertise and struggles to overcome challenges and create multiple success stories within the ICT sector.

They must also have adequate levels of maturity and self-confidence that help them do their job as expected, along with the ability to convince and motivate other tech-females to help secure the balance of gender diversity in the sector.

The selected tech-females will be sharing their experience with other female colleagues and will also be offering them guidance and counseling, Ms. Darwish pointed out.

Notably, “int@j” launched the “SHETECHS” initiative end of 2018 via a forum patronized by HRH Princess Sumaya bint El-Hassan, with the support of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).