Increasing the Inclusion of Women in the Information Technology and Cybersecurity Skilled Technical Workforce

提高女性在信息技术和网络安全技术劳动力中的参与度

• 批准号: 2055074
• 负责人: Nelly Delessy
• 金额: $ 59.26万
• 依托单位: Miami Dade College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-01 至 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2055074&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Increasing; Inclusion; Women; Information; Technology

As the digital revolution continues to change the way people live and work, the need for a highly skilled computing workforce also continues to grow. Diversity contributes to increased productivity in highly skilled occupations, but women are not yet equitably represented in many computing fields. Nationally, only 26% of professional computing occupations in the 2019 workforce were held by women. Black women represented only 3% and Hispanic women represented only 2% of this workforce. More specifically, women remain underrepresented in the high-demand information technology/ cybersecurity fields, for which job openings and wages are rising rapidly. To ensure the vitality of the information technology and cybersecurity enterprise, the nation must increase the number of women in these fields. This project aims to expand opportunities for women in information technology/ cybersecurity by using strategic outreach, supported by experts, to recruit women, and by supporting these women through completion of their education and training. By increasing women's access to computing jobs, this project can help to mitigate the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on career entry and progression of women in STEM fields.The overarching vision for this project is to increase the educational attainment of women in high-technology fields that are driving the nation’s economy, with emphasis on Information Technology and Cybersecurity. To accomplish this vision, the project team will implement best practices for supporting women students, including a comprehensive set of activities that include development of the Community Alliance for Women in Technology, faculty professional development, optimized outreach strategies, a summer Tech Immersion JumpStart, a virtual group mentoring program, proactive academic advising, promotion/support for the attainment of industry certifications, and specialized programming to enhance the student experience. This programming includes events focused on career development, a Women in Technology Student Organization, and a high-tech internship program. Expected project outcomes include: (1) broadening understanding of the impact that professional development has on college faculty and how the delivery of new pedagogies geared to support women in technology affects success and progression of technology coursework; (2) developing best practices for non-academic supports (such as pre-college summer immersion programs and mentoring) that are effective for recruiting and retaining students in technology fields, particularly Black and Hispanic women who are first generation college students; (3) gaining insights into the effects of applied learning experiences (such as internships and soft-skills preparation) on the number of female graduates entering technology fields; and (4) advancing understanding of long-term measures needed to cultivate meaningful and lasting change that can scale to other fields that would benefit from greater diversity and inclusion. This project's emphasis on career preparation with mentoring support may be replicable and sustainable at other institutions interested in increasing the number of women and first-generation students in the skilled technical workforce. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation’s economy.   This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

随着数字革命不断改变人们的生活和工作方式，对高技能计算劳动力的需求也在不断增长。 多样性有助于提高高技能职业的生产力，但妇女在许多计算机领域的代表性还不平等。 在全国范围内，2019年劳动力中只有26%的专业计算职业由女性担任。黑人妇女仅占3%，西班牙裔妇女仅占2%。 更具体地说，妇女在高需求的信息技术/网络安全领域的代表性仍然不足，而这些领域的职位空缺和工资正在迅速增加。为了确保信息技术和网络安全企业的活力，国家必须增加这些领域的妇女人数。该项目旨在通过在专家的支持下利用战略外联来征聘妇女，并通过支持这些妇女完成教育和培训，扩大妇女在信息技术/网络安全方面的机会。通过增加女性获得计算机工作的机会，该项目有助于减轻COVID-19对STEM领域女性职业生涯和发展的不成比例的影响。该项目的总体愿景是提高女性在推动国家经济的高科技领域的教育程度，重点是信息技术和网络安全。为了实现这一愿景，项目团队将实施支持女学生的最佳做法，包括一系列全面的活动，其中包括发展社区技术妇女联盟，教师专业发展，优化外联战略，夏季技术沉浸式快速启动，虚拟小组辅导计划，积极的学术咨询，促进/支持获得行业认证，和专门的编程，以提高学生的经验。 该计划包括专注于职业发展的活动，技术学生组织中的女性和高科技实习计划。项目预期成果包括：（1）扩大对专业发展对大学教师的影响的理解，以及如何提供新的课程，以支持妇女在技术影响技术课程的成功和进展;（2）制定非学术支持的最佳实践（如大学预科暑期浸入式课程和辅导），有效地招募和留住技术领域的学生，特别是黑人和西班牙裔妇女谁是第一代大学生;（3）获得深入了解应用学习经验的影响（如实习和软技能准备），说明进入技术领域的女毕业生人数;以及（4）促进对培养有意义和持久变革所需的长期措施的理解，这些变革可以扩展到其他将从更大的多样性和包容性中受益的领域。该项目强调在辅导支持下的职业准备，这一点可以在其他有意增加妇女和第一代学生在熟练技术劳动力中的人数的机构推广和持续。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于推动国家经济的先进技术领域的技术人员教育。   该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。