Breaking the glass ceiling with Upskilling

Like every year, this year’s International Women’s Day celebration too voiced the need to empower women. Contributing to this mission, Paul Writer in association with Manipal ProLearn hosted a webinar focusing on women realizing their true potential in professional life on 7th March 2019.

The webinar – Breaking the glass ceiling metaphorically represents the invisible, yet seemingly unbreachable barrier that prevents women from climbing the corporate ladder.

Dr. Mamata Bhandar, Professor, Manipal GlobalNxt University and Director, Women’s leadership program and Richa Dubey, Director, Human Resources at Schneider India were the key speakers and Jessie Paul, CEO of Paul Writer was the host for the event. 

Inculcating the leader in you

Richa Dubey began the session as the first speaker by expressing her gratitude for having the opportunity and platform to share her opinions a day before the International Women’s Day. She started her speech by enlightening the participants about the disturbing facts found by an international survey done on women pursuing professional careers. 

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She revealed that according to the World Economic Forum, it will take 217 years to see parity in wages drawn by men and women. 

Moving towards the brighter side of the picture, Richa shared another interesting survey by PwC done on 3627 professional women in 2018. The study showed that women are extremely determined today to outgrow themselves and to perform at their best, especially in Africa and Asia. 

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With the economic centre of the world shifting to Asia, women in these emerging economies are more confident and ambitious towards their career progression and success. With this thought, Richa expressed her hope to see women draw equal wages with men much sooner than 217 years.

Talking about the way forward for companies around the world to realize the women potential, Richa expressed that the onus is not only on women but on business leaders too. 

“Transparency, trust and support network are the three key elements that business leaders must focus on to help women excel in professional spheres,” she said.

The three E’s for professional excellence 

For women to become future ready, Richa listed out three tried and tested ways. The three E’s as she referred to them are – Education, Exposure and Experience. She further mentioned that by building on your skill sets and adapting new technologies, women can future proof their careers. 

Holistic upskilling for women is the way forward

The virtual dais was then taken over by Dr. Mamata Bhandar and she began her session by including the educational dimension to the webinar.  She spoke about the women leadership program she was a part of for over 6 years and how it helped her gain insights about women in leadership.

She mentioned that the program started with training senior level women, preparing them for leadership roles. But, over the years, she saw a surge in the requirement for training women at the entry level of their career too. The vision to intervene beforehand and help women give a strong start to their professional lives came into the picture. 

After working and interacting with women that came from different regions of the world and background, she discussed how the program was restructured to make it helpful to the women in the professional world. 

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Taking the session further, Dr. Mamata drew her focus on women with jobs and explored through the biggest barriers faced by professional women. She quoted motherhood and work-life balance as the two greatest reasons why women hesitate to take leadership roles.

Dr. Mamata then revealed the concerns faced by women playing a leading role. She said that most of the women today says- “I don’t know how to be a leader, I don’t know how to manage a team and I don’t know how to begin a discussion with other CEOs are the real barriers faced by professional women today”

Intervene early to stay on the fast track 

Dr. Mamata then moved on to what actions women can take to break the glass ceiling. She enlightened the group with the four areas where we can intervene early and keep on the fast track. The four areas are - Career Identity, Social Skills & Competencies, Management & Leadership, and Business Acumen.

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Getting started 

To get started, Dr. Mamata suggests asking and assessing your career with questions like where are you right now? Where you want to be? Where do you see your career in 5 years? What are the skills needed to get there? How do you develop your skills and be future proof? She emphasized that upskilling is the best way to keep the career on an accelerated path. There are many short terms and online courses that women can take up even if they don’t have a lot of time, she mentioned. 

She also showcased the benefit of going through the leadership program for women and quoted examples of how it benefits women who sign up for it.

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The webinar then moved on to the Q&A session where the speakers answer the questions of the participants. 

Breaking through the ceiling with confidence 

Dr. Mamata, Richa Dubey and many more women leaders from around the world endorse upskilling as a key factor for climbing the corporate ladder with confidence. Manipal ProLearn offers many upskilling programs to stay updated and earn certifications in upcoming skills. Enrol with a program that helps you aim high and break through the glass ceiling.