Foundation & Friends podcast: Conversations across the network
Here at City & Guilds, our purpose is helping people, organisations and economies develop their skills for growth. Through our Foundation, we act as a catalyst for this work, by helping remove barriers to getting a job, celebrating best practice on the job and advocating for jobs of the future.
Through this monthly podcast, we hope to bring together people from across our diverse foundation networks. The ambition is that this podcast will serve as an educational platform, a source of inspiration, a community hub and a tool for personal and professional empowerment.
Listeners who are passionate about skills development and committed to growth. This is aimed at employers, learners, skills development partners, learning and development connects.
In this very first episode, a head of International Womens' Day (#IWD2024), host Cecilia Harvey, Chief Operating Officer City & Guilds, invites Gaia Caruso, Head of ED&I Sparta Global to discuss female leadership within the technology sector.
Sparta Global, a provider of business and technology training and careers for emerging talent, were one of the esteemed winners of the Princess Royal Training Awards 2021, in recognition for deploying an innovative approach to help employees across hiring, training, engagement and employment develop their use of inclusive language and keep on top of using it in a considerate, constructive and empowering way.
They were also awarded special commendations for demonstrating a significant commitment to inclusion and diversity and developing and delivering best practice in training.
For further information about the material quoted in this episode visit:
Foundation & Friends podcast: Conversations across the network
Here at City & Guilds, our purpose is helping people, organisations and economies develop their skills for growth. Through our Foundation, we act as a catalyst for this work, by helping remove barriers to getting a job, celebrating best practice on the job and advocating for jobs of the future.
Through this monthly podcast, we hope to bring together people from across our diverse foundation networks. The ambition is that this podcast will serve as an educational platform, a source of inspiration, a community hub and a tool for personal and professional empowerment.
Listeners who are passionate about skills development and committed to growth. This is aimed at employers, learners, skills development partners, learning and development connects.
In this very first episode, a head of International Womens' Day (#IWD2024), host Cecilia Harvey, Chief Operating Officer City & Guilds, invites Gaia Caruso, Head of ED&I Sparta Global to discuss female leadership within the technology sector.
Sparta Global, a provider of business and technology training and careers for emerging talent, were one of the esteemed winners of the Princess Royal Training Awards 2021, in recognition for deploying an innovative approach to help employees across hiring, training, engagement and employment develop their use of inclusive language and keep on top of using it in a considerate, constructive and empowering way.
They were also awarded special commendations for demonstrating a significant commitment to inclusion and diversity and developing and delivering best practice in training.
For further information about the material quoted in this episode visit:
Gaia Caruso
I think women empowerment is everyone's responsibility and everyone's priority. Gender Equality benefits, everyone. Conversely, if we leave women behind, everyone is going to suffer. So it really is more than a nice thing to do. It's an actual diluted necessity that men and people of all genders play an important role.
Cecilia Harvey
Just listen to a clip from the latest episode of the foundation and friends conversations podcast. Hi, I'm Cecilia Harvey, Chief Operating Officer at City & Guilds. Today I am delighted to be joined by Gaia Caruso, Director of Ed and AI at Sparta global as we discuss championing female leadership. Hello, Gaya how are you? Hi, Cecilia, very well, thank you. How are you? Doing? Good. I am excited to speak to you today like a lot to get through. I want to know the story, your career. We're going to talk about a lot of different topics today. So I'm very excited. I think it's gonna be like, really good. Let's do this. Let's do this. Thank you so much for having me. amazing opportunity to have a conversation today. Thank you for having us. Oh, my pleasure. So Gaia Caruso. Okay. Okay, so let's see in 2021, the one the Princess Royal Training Award for your training program, encouraging the tech sector to be more diverse with the focus on women, as well as having an dei commendation. We also know that Sparta Global has just extensive experience as an employer that's really driving the representation of women in technology, and particularly through your award winning women in tech initiative, the Athena Academy, however, all of that wonderful, but in a few words, you know, who is Gaia Caruso, I mean, let's, let's just sort of have a snapshot of your career.
Gaia Caruso
Sure. Thank you, Cecilia. I am the director of equality, diversity and inclusion at spalted label. And a huge advocate, as you will probably see today, a huge advocate of thoracic labels mission to make technology more inclusive. And at Sparta Global. We are a social impact company. So we really create opportunities for women, and talents from underrepresented backgrounds. To get into tech, we offer fully funded technology training, and then place these brilliant, diverse talent into the IT sector. And to be completely honest with us to see Yeah, it really is the the kind of work that gets you excited to get up in the morning and go to work. Because it's more than doing business. It's doing business with a great social purpose. So if I had to tell you about my career in one sentence, I would probably start there, I'd say that the one thing I have always known in my career throughout my career, is that I wanted to work for a social impact organization, I was born and raised in Italy, I moved to the UK what feels like many, many, many years ago, to complete my education and to start my career, which was an incredible experience, but also very challenging experience in many ways, not just as a woman, but as a migrant woman, you know, it meant building a network from scratch, learning a new culture from scratch, building a professional brand, learning how to be successful in the corporate sector. But I became particularly interested in technology in 2016. And at the time, I was working at the LSE, the plumbers club economics and political science. And I was working as a researcher, and I was specifically researching the issue of inequality in the digital sector. And the reasons why we absolutely need to bring more women into the digital space and the digital economy. And it was at this point that I was actually headhunted by by started label. And I vividly remember the day that I heard about this business model for the very first time. And I was immediately sold Cecilia, I thought was an incredible model. This is how we increase diversity in tech. This is how we do it. This is how we make a change. So I consider myself very lucky. I think at this point in my career, there is no better place that I could be. And I sort of nurtured my interest in diversity in tech outside of Sparta global to I'm a mentor, I am a coach. I represent Sparta as a UN Women delegate. So
It's just a fantastic opportunity to do a job that I really, really love. And love it.
Cecilia Harvey
What I love about your story, I think that it's so relatable to so many people the journey that you've been on, you know, I think about just in terms of also, you know what the organization does, it's just so it's just doing so much, particularly for women in technology, something I'm definitely very passionate about.
I always believe that investment in skills is just so important. It's fundamental. I think, as a leader, it's your responsibility, I think organizations have a responsibility to invest in people, their skills development, absolutely critical. Tell me a bit more about how has the investment in skills that your organisation opened up opportunities for women in your organization.
Gaia Caruso
This is such an important point, I think I would absolutely agree that investing in women's skills is the cornerstone of building an equal economy and an equal sales sector specifically. So I think that investment in skills is such a such an important asset in this context. And we have taken very, very concrete steps towards investing in women skills. So one of the, I believe, incredible things that we have done, we have set up our award winning all female Academy at Sparta Global, you've mentioned it earlier. This is our sponsor, global Athena Academy, which offers women a chance to enter the technology industry and to also grow into future tech leaders. And it's an academy designed by women, for women, which I think it's really compelling. We've actually brought together our female colleagues, our female trainers, so we actually have a cohort of senior female trainers who are role models. So we can hire women from all different walks of life, from all different backgrounds, into the Athena Academy, and then provide the structure of support and the community to actually provide not just the skills, but also the confidence and the mentorship, to go into the digital sector. And to be successful in the long run in what we do, Cecilia, in practical terms, we provide 12 weeks of fully paid, fully funded training within the Athena Academy. And we proactively encourage applications from women from all different backgrounds. And I really mean from all different backgrounds, we have, you know, career changes, we have women who has never studied technology before, we have women who wanted to study technology, but perhaps come from a lower socioeconomic background, they never had the opportunity to go and pay for an extensive degree in tech. We work with neurodivergent women are very interested in that, you know, how can we harness not just female talent, but female talent from all different backgrounds. So we have this incredible community of female talent, which we then support, you know, in an all female environment, and then place on client side, from a client point of view, you know, what a transformative opportunity to tap into that pool of talent, and really, really moved the dial for diversity in their digital teams. So it's an incredible project. I'm really passionate about it, as you can probably tell, yeah, definitely. Well, it's it's a lot to be to feel passionate about. I mean, I think that I what I love about it is just the just the different levels of representation that you have, like you're representing women, from different backgrounds, different areas, different socio economic backgrounds. So and I think that particularly within this industry, that's so important, because when you have that representation, when you see someone who looks like you when you see somebody who's gone on a similar journey as you when you see somebody who you can relate to you feel like it is possible for you to not only be in the industry, but to be successful in the industry. Absolutely. 100% and I think really paying attention to the intersectionality
within, you know, within that group of people, I think it's really important. In fact, you know, I think for too long, we have spoken about women in technology and women in corporate and as this one entity like this one faceless entity, but of course there is more than one experience of being a woman and you know, we all have different stories.
We all have different experiences. And I think they are. They're all the combination of different aspects of our identity and our individual stories. Some of those aspects are visible and some of those aspects are invisible. But I think it's really important to empower women, whilst also paying attention to that, that intersectionality is something that we actually see at the Athena Academy. And we see it represented in the variety of stories that we were able to attract into the company. And I mean, we have someone who moved to the UK from Estonia, and she in Estonia, she works as a professional footballer. And then she moved to London, she worked in PR, she worked as a nanny, she studied a non technical degree, she came to us for the global graduated from the academy. She's now a scrum master. Meanwhile, we have you know, another Spartan who is a young mother, and she didn't study tech, she wanted to find a way to rescale retrain and support her family in a better way. So she came to the academy, she joined one of our business programs, and and she's now a product owner, with one of our clients. And the final story that I'm going to give you, but I think it's really, really compelling. We have a wonderful Spartan, by the way, we call our consultants Spartans, so I love it, I love fastly, I'm going to be using that terminology and could face a lot. The one of our Spartan, and her name is Jade. Prior to joining Sparta, she was working at McDonald's, she was working in a casino. And she was writing a master's degree all at the same time, she came to Sparta global, because she really wanted to secure that first opportunity to get into tech. And she did. And so she went through the academy. And she was then placed with one of our biggest clients at big asset management, CERN. But what's really compelling is at the moment of, you know, when she was getting placed, and what really sparked an interest in the client was J transferable skills. And she was able to think on her feet, work with numbers manage pressure of real people, because of the experience that she had accrued, working in a casino. And all of these skills were perfectly transferable. And they're all perfect skills in data. So that gives you just a flavor of some of the different stories that we see and the power of actually empowering women from all different walks of life. I love the stories you've learned so much about hearing about people's journeys, and and just the different career pathways that people have taken it I think that it's so inspiring, I think that it shows that, that you don't have to in order to achieve whatever your definition of success is and to progress. You don't have to go sort of a traditional path or, or do even what's expected. But you can go in these, take different pathways, and still achieve progress, still achieve success, and still work towards creating something for yourself that you probably didn't even realize was possible for yourself. And so I think that those are incredible stories to share. So thank you for that.
Cecilia Harvey
Enjoying this podcast great. Don't forget to subscribe to it on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review, it would be greatly appreciated. Now back to the episode.
Cecilia Harvey
When we think about pivotal moments in our career, so back to you know, on that sort of field of career journeys, my goodness, Why think back on my career, I definitely had a lot of sort of pivotal moments, aha moments. epiphany is whatever you want to call them.
But when you think back on your career, and sort of a pivotal moment that you've had, what would you feel is one of those pivotal moments in your career? T
Gaia Caruso
That's a good question. I'm actually going to build on something that you just said to Celia. In our careers, we have the opportunity to create some things for ourselves. And I think one of the most rewarding aspects of my career has been the ability to actually create opportunities along the way now for an opportunity that I didn't necessarily think would be possible, you know, or new opportunities, things that I that I was able to create and discover along the way. It has been a journey of discovery in that respect. I think if you really, if I'd really had to isolate one pivotal moment in my career, I do think it was the day that I came across Sparta global. And for one simple reason, I think it's really important to a have a vision, in terms of our individual careers. I'm very big on vision, I think, for to write to know where you are going. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you know exactly what you're going to be doing in 10 years time. But it does mean that you know why you're doing it. So I think if you have a personal vision, a very strong sense of who you are, what you bring to the table, and where you are going as an individual, I think that's a great asset. But coming across Barsa was a pivotal moment in my story, because I came across an organization with a purpose and a vision that matched my purpose and my vision, I think there is a component of luck there, you know, it was a very, very good match, there was a lot of synergy. And but it was transformative in my experience, because suddenly I was in an environment where I could apply my vision, I could apply and my sense of pride in this purpose is social purpose of the organization. And I got to play an active part in the mission of the organization, and I, you know, increasingly with time, got to play a more and more strategic role in, you know, driving the direction of the organization as a social impact business. But I think it happened, because, you know, my vision, my purpose, and the vision and purpose of the organization, were so aligned. So I consider myself lucky in that respect, I think it's a skill. But there was a component of that, in my case, too. And
Cecilia Harvey
I believe there is no such thing as luck. I think that you prepare yourself for opportunities. And and it's through hard work in that preparation and setting that intention, like what you were saying about vision. I think that when you set your intention, that vision for what you want, you manifest it, you're, you're prepared mentally, so you are ready to receive those opportunities that are that are coming your way. So I It has nothing to do with luck didn't invade, it happened, you manifested it for yourself
Gaia Caruso
You are very right. When you speak about intention, very, very important words, you know, that drive to manifest what you think and you feel your confidence is right, not just for you, but for the organization as well. So yeah, same thing. Definitely, that that was a pivotal moment for me and a transformative moment in my career.
Cecilia Harvey
Thinking about strategies and career strategies, so we just started talking about one in terms of, you know, setting intentions and visions and things like that. I think that the reality is that especially in our industry, there is no linear line to success and to, to sort of navigating your career path. I think that it's so important that that people really have solid strategies in place in order to in order to progress their careers. You know, I think that you because there is no linear path, your your career path is going to be filled with different twists and turns and obstacles along the way. Tell me about some of the strategies that that you've put in place that you think could helped you, when you're thinking about as you progress your career, particularly in this sector? Yeah, absolutely.
Gaia Caruso
I go back to vision and intention as a very, very key asset, I'd actually say, in my experience that has consistently been the most important asset, because I think in business, you are going to have highs and lows, things aren't constant. But if you have string of purpose, if you're sure about that vision and why it's so important, then I think you differentiate yourself. And you're going to emerge as a leader as a as a natural result of being so so sure that the company is going in that direction, and this is the right thing to do. The vision and intention die very important. But in addition to that, Cecilia I am, I would say, I think finding an owning your identity is a very important skill. And one that I know took me some time to develop. And I think especially when you have the experience of was coming from a minority story, whatever that means for you. It takes time. And I would say courage to actually own your differences. And it's only natural, it's only human, that we want to fit in as much as possible. This is a human trait, and we all share it. And, and it takes courage to actually appreciate your differences, that actually using your differences to your advantage, that you know, it is okay. And if you if no one else in the room looks like you, then it is okay. If no one else in the room sounds like you, and it couldn't be a reason for you to mask your identity. But on the contrary, it's an opportunity to really own it. I actually think when things get difficult in business, it really can be your biggest strength. And if you don't mask your voice, you're going to be able to emerge when things get difficult. So the ability to really own your identity to discover it first, you know, who am I? What do I add to the table? How am I different? How am I unique, and then using that unique identity to your advantage? I think that's a very important strategy. And the third one that I will name is probably a drive to keep learning. I have actually found in my career, the more senior I get, I can genuinely say that tomorrow progress, the more I feel like I have more to learn. And I am constantly thinking about the what else. What else can I do? What else can I learn? What else can I be? What else can I become in this organization? How else can I add value. So that genuine drive to keep learning and the ability to learn from people around you. I also think that's important. I know that I am surrounded by our teams are people and role models that I was lucky enough to encounter throughout my career that I learn from people around me every single day, whilst also maintaining my own unique identity, my own unique sense of vision, say, I'd probably say vision, owning your differences. And a drive to keep learning are three very important strategies. In my experience.
Cecilia Harvey
I love what you said about identity, because I think that your identity is absolutely your greatest asset. I think it's the foundation of of who you are as an individual. You're absolutely right. I think definitely, it takes time to truly not only understand yourself, but also accept yourself. And I think that it's so important that you just need to embrace fully who you are, stand firm in what you believe in. It's so important because as you go through your journey, your identity is what's going to get you through. So you can't you got to be so firm in who you are not let anybody ever diminish your worth, or make you feel that you don't deserve something or that you're not enough. I think that that's so critical. And that just that authenticity, and just being yourself is just so critical. So So I absolutely love what you said about identity. I think that definitely that's something that it's a strategy that you just need throughout your career 100%
Gaia Caruso
It never stops ever.
Cecilia Harvey
Let's talk about ally ship. I think that this is so important, especially when you are not the majority in a particular industry. It's so important that you have allies, men, and especially in Tech have such an opportunity to be allies. How do you think male allies can support the promotion of female leadership and inclusion within the sector?
Gaia Caruso
100% I think, not only is male ownership important, I also think it's it's crucial. If we really want to move the dial for diversity within the sector. When we think about it, Tech has traditionally been dominated by men as an industry. So it's incredibly important that the support for women comes from male allies in those leadership positions. I think practical steps include, you know, building an inclusive culture, which male allies can play a very, very important part, driving that inclusive culture, making sure that women are not only welcomed but also appreciated, recognize supported, not discriminated within the workforce. And on that note, for example, we have a very interesting program of training within the organization which is all about inclusive language and how to support diversity within the company through inclusive language. And this is a program that is heavily sponsored and attended by our male colleagues actually. So here we are learning about how to avoid micro aggressions, how to use words in a very intentional way. I think words are fundamentally important. And men in your organization, everyone in the organization, we all have to learn about the power of words in supporting inclusion. But I think beyond culture, men play a very direct and tangible role in providing suppose for female colleagues from considering women for leadership roles at bringing women into the organization, we have some incredible male allies within the Talent Team, for example, at Sparta global, who are incredible in supporting our Athena Academy efforts, and also making sure that women are promoted within the company, and which of course requires a very careful analysis of performance. Who are we choosing for promotion? How are we doing that? We have incredible male allies in very, very senior roles, who play a very, very important part, and across those processes. And then finally, you know, all the way at the very top of the organization, making sure that there is a leadership group in place that really, genuinely support diversity within the organization. And again, male allies are very, very important. They're in challenging unconscious bias in making sure that diversity isn't just an ethical endeavor within the company, but rather a strategic asset and something that they want to drive forwards. The final comments from my point of view, I really genuinely think, and I say this very often, I think women empowerment is everyone's responsibility, and everyone's priority. Gender Equality benefits, everyone. Conversely, if we leave women behind, everyone is going to suffer. So it really is more than a nice thing to do. It's an actual necessity that men and people of all genders play an important role in our work
Cecilia Harvey
I think that definitely male allies have been absolutely instrumental in my career progression. And not only from a from a mentorship perspective, but also just in terms of just opportunities given and just believing in me, was just absolutely a fundamental aspect of my career growth. So it's absolutely important. You're absolutely right, that it's not just women that need to be involved in the promotion of female leadership, men as allies are absolutely critical to making that happen.
When we look ahead at the industry, and in looking at some of the changes that perhaps you're optimistic about regarding female leadership in the sector, you know, what are those things that you are optimistic about?
Gaia Caruso
I think I, I am very optimistic actually, about the sector. I think the digital economy provide unprecedented opportunities to better the lives of girls and women and to bring more women and female talent into the sector. I think we are slowly but surely seeing a rise in female leadership across technology. There was a very interesting study done by Deloitte at the very end of 2022, which actually showed that the fastest progress is in leadership within the technology sector. So there is an estimated gain of nearly 20% in the number, the proportion of women taking on leadership positions within technology. I don't think we are going as fast as we should. In fact, there are studies that also show that technology is moving very quickly, but we are still leaving women behind. So we do need to accelerate the speed of progress if we do want to achieve that gender equal planet that the UN Sustainable Development Goals have told us that we must achieve. The progress is visible. For example, I think we see more and more women from different backgrounds entering the sector. And again, I feel very optimistic that organizations like Sparta global are actually doing something very concrete to make that happen. The Athena Academy is a wonderful example. We are finding female talent from non traditional backgrounds and bringing them into the sector and that's important. And I also find and I see a growing appreciation of returners, especially women returners, and the value that a woman returner can bring to a decline OG role, even a leadership role within tech. So that's also really promising. I think I think overall, we are moving in the right direction, arguably not weekly enough. But that's exactly why we need initiatives like the Athena Academy, like this very podcast that we have recorded today that, you know, we need to all engage in this dialogue. More than that, we need to turn dialogue into action. And and do that together. Absolutely.