UN Women and Nokia support women’s participation and leadership in the tech sector in Saudi Arabia through the Nokia summer internship programme
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“We are here today because of unknown women who took this step to open this door. I don’t know those women but I am really grateful, and I want to be this for other girls.”
For the fourth year in a row, Nokia has conducted the summer internship for Saudi women studying information communications technology and related fields. The internship is under the umbrella of the global project between UN Women and Nokia to leverage technology to empower women and foster their leadership in the tech sector. Nokia developed the summer internship programme in Saudi Arabia aiming to address its governmental and societal commitments.
The 22 Saudi women engineering students have gained valuable experience in telecom products and solutions, as well as training in soft skills such as presentation and public speaking. The eight-week course is designed to prepare the students for future careers in Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning technology sector and several interns from previous years were recruited by Nokia upon graduation.
This year’s cohort of interns is drawn from Princess Nourah University, Shaqra University, Prince Sultan University, Alfaisal University, and King Saud University.
“ As a father of five young women and Managing Director of Nokia Saudi Arabia Regional Headquarters, I am extremely proud of the continued internship programme. This year’s cohort is a great example of the female talent that the great universities and Nokia are benefiting from. I am convinced that future leaders are among the four internship cohorts we’ve trained to date” – Mikko Lavanti, Senior Vice President Mobile Network Market, Middle East and Africa.”
On 30 and 31 July, UN Women worked with the interns to enhance their awareness of how technology can help to address development challenges that disproportionately impact women and girls. The sessions included briefings looking at regional trends and priorities concerning women’s empowerment in the region, and best practices to address the gender digital divide. The students generously shared their perspectives on why women are increasingly seeking tech careers in Saudi Arabia and what more can be done to facilitate their participation and leadership in the tech sector. The interns also applied their new knowledge to analyse how they could mainstream women’s empowerment in the design of their final projects to increase the value for both business customers and end users.
UN Women’s regional analysis has identified the Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics fields as a high-potential area to strengthen women’s labour force participation and economic empowerment. During the 30th anniversary review of the Beijing Platform for Action, in March this year the Commission on the Status of Women committed to “Harnessing the potential of technology and innovation and closing the digital divides within and between countries, including the gender digital divide, as well as expanding digital learning, literacy and capacity-building opportunities and addressing the risks and challenges emerging from the use of technologies, with full respect for the human rights of all women and girls, both online and offline, and mainstreaming a gender perspective in policy decisions and the frameworks that guide the development of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence”.