Keysight: Boosting Diversity Is Vital for European Competitiveness
By Shidah Ahmad
Originally published by eeNews Europe
The STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) disciplines are overwhelmingly dominated by men. Worldwide, despite representing half the population, only about a quarter of STEM workers today are female. Yet as technology continues to advance, the needs of the labour market keep changing with an increasing number of jobs in European electronics requiring STEM skills and knowledge.
Keysight has always upheld a culture of inclusion, and this goes back to our days as Hewlett-Packard, and we’ve always had a conducive and encouraging environment to grow and develop. Aligned with the company’s direction, we also have programs like Introduce a Girl to Engineering (IGED) that inculcate girls’ interest in engineering from a young age, thereby building a talent pipeline for women in engineering.
This program and its companion “Keysight After School” hands-on science workshops for children are just two of many programs Keysight has created to instill an interest in STEM. Our initiatives range all the way from elementary to the tertiary levels. We have programs on a global scale as well as more intimate, localised engagements, to encourage students to explore and discover the fields of STEM through hands-on, practical learning.