When Gabriela Capote was made redundant from her advertising job final 12 months, she determined that she wanted to study AI to get the sting in securing her subsequent position.
“After getting laid off from a job that I thought was so perfect and secure, it really woke me up,” says Ms Capote, who lives in Miami.
“It taught me something important about how nothing is actually permanent, and that I don’t want to get complacent. I’d heard the big, bad, scary conversation about AI for a while, and I’ve always been interested in how I could utilise it.”
Instead of simply looking for a brand new advertising job, Ms Capote enrolled on a six-week, on-line AI coaching program. This was offered by a worldwide coaching organisation referred to as Mission Impact Academy (Mia).
Launched in 2022, Mia’s programs are aimed particularly at ladies, with the intention of getting extra ladies employed in work that features using AI.
Ms Capote says that the certification helped her to get a brand new communications job at an insurance coverage agency. “Saying that I was certified in AI made me stand out from all the other applicants, and I think was a big reason as to why I was offered the role.
“And my new firm may be very open to listening to about something I believe could be good from a tech perspective.”
Ms Capote adds that her increased understanding of AI also helped her search for the job at the insurance company in the first place. She says that she put her resume into popular AI chatbots ChatGPT and Bard, and asked them to find possible vacancies for her. She quickly got a list of 50.
There is presently a gender AI hole, with 54% of males utilizing expertise in both their job or private life, in contrast with solely 35% of ladies, in response to one report from final 12 months.
A rising variety of ladies at the moment are upskilling themselves to bridge that hole. For instance, on-line studying platform Coursera says there was a giant leap within the variety of ladies signing as much as its “AI for Everyone” course.
Last year, this was the sixth most popular course for its 1.58 million female learners in the UK, up from 59th place in 2022.
Heather Black is the founder and chief executive of Supermums, which offers tech training courses aimed at women returning to the workforce after having children. Last year it launched its first AI course.
“With the tempo that expertise is altering and evolving, and given how we’re at all times so saturated with data, the gender disparity in AI will enhance if we do not have very particular methods for ladies to study it,” says London-based Ms Black.
With a recent study by the UN finding that women may be at a higher risk of their jobs being made obsolete by AI, due to their overrepresentation in administrative and clerical work, training courses aimed specifically at women may help many keep their positions, or more easily find new ones.
Georgina Cosma, professor in AI and data science at Loughborough University, says that equipping more women with AI skills is paramount for securing their future in industries increasingly shaped by the technology.
Yet she cautions that women-only courses must meet rigorous industry standards. “If programmes restrict complexity or content material, there’s a danger they might contribute to outdated assumptions, and isolate ladies in expertise additional reasonably than integrating expertise extra broadly.
“The goal is to promote inclusion by offering solid training to help qualified women gain the skills to advance to roles similar to equally qualified peers.”
Prof Cosma provides that girls within the rising AI sector additionally want extra mentorship packages, related networking alternatives, and hiring practices designed to counteract unconscious bias. “Achieving true gender parity demands a shift in both attitudes and policies that influence access and career progression in AI.”
Janna Salokangas, co-founder of Miami-based Mia, says that its AI course isn’t just concerning the coaching, but additionally about giving the scholars a way of togetherness. “It’s all about the energy, the inclusion and belonging they get being part of a community, and learning with other women,” she says.
