The UTS Women’s Career Confidence: Re-employment Pathways Program aims to tackle three key issues: the gender gap among digital marketing professionals, the labour shortage in the industry, and the fact that women experience several difficulties when trying to return to work after taking time off for caring responsibilities.
The latter point in particular has far-reaching consequences for women, says Christina Bobryk Manager of Education Development & Learner Experience at Plus UTS Business Future.
“Once you dedicate yourself to caring responsibilities – whether for children, family members or friends - you can’t really continue doing structured employment. Not working means an interruption in cashflow, and down the line, you don’t have the super that you need for your retirement.
“In fact, we know that older women experiencing homelessness is a big issue in the community, precisely because career breaks often mean less in the bank for retirement,” Bobryk explains.
To kill three birds with one stone, the Re-employment Pathway Program mentors 25 women back into the workforce, specifically focusing on digital marketing skills.
The successful delivery of the program depends on partnerships that bring together expertise from different areas and is developed and delivered through collaboration between UTS professional units, faculties, external digital marketing agencies and career coaches.
“What unites us is our common goal; we all have a deep understanding of the problems we are trying to solve, and we know that by working together, we can have a bigger impact than we could have individually,” says Bobryk.
Lead Program Coach, Kate Alexander, says that the impact is much greater than simply upskilling and reskilling women in digital marketing.
The beauty about the program is that it’s not only about learning the skills of the trade to become a digital marketer, but for the women to be better able to market themselves in a contemporary way. This is so important because one of the key barriers for women returning to work is lack of confidence. There is a lot of self-doubt, the idea that they are not good enough or qualified enough for the roles.
There are a number of benefits and positive changes that are emerging among program participants.
“Social impact doesn’t look the same for everyone, but the program helps them realise that there is a shared humanity about how they are feeling and the situation they are in. Meeting each other and building a network helps them tap into their bravery,” explains Alexander.
“Some of the women might be hired by our industry partners, some might end up working for themselves. But regardless of what they decide to do, they are doing so with a much greater sense of their own strengths and ability, which means they have regained confidence to go out there, step back in and explore all that is possible,” she concludes.