Systemic Investments in Equity, Talent & Tech: Equity Along the Spectrum
Senior Director of the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia Tech
As originally featured on CECP’s Insights Blog
The Systemic Investments in Equity, Talent, and Tech Accelerate Community has taken a deep dive into the structure and objectives of individual programs focused on tech equity in the portfolios of its members. The objective of the CECP community is to develop a framework that can render corporate efforts in tech equity more impactful. At the center of the work is the identification of the core variables that distinguish equity from equality.
Tenets of an equity framework:
- Tie exposure programs to formal educational outcomes
- Value proposition of different kinds of schools
- Expectations of the talent acquisition programs
As a guiding principle, equity and equality are not equivalent. Tech equity is not merely the strive for greater diversity and inclusion, it is an effort to address the institutional structures that continuously yield the racial and gender imbalances and injustices in the tech sector.
There has been consensus among the Community that corporate engagement in tech equity falls along a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum are efforts focused on exposure and engagement in STEM fields for young people. On the other end are efforts focused on direct and specific talent acquisition. In the middle are the range of programs that focus to varying degrees on formal skill development for education or direct workforce opportunities. The extent to which corporate engagement on this spectrum is systemic and effective depends on the specific objective of programs and a clear articulation of the problem that individual companies are trying to solve.
Read the complete blog here: http://cecp.me/2nFP50X
