Ángeles Vela is  General Director at Csoftmty ICT Cluster, a member of the TCI Network thorugh Clusters de Nuevo León.  With her cluster team,  they work towards the transformation of Nuevo Leon (Mexico) through IT  solutions and businesses. Today, they share with us  some fantastic initiatives to increase female participation in their ecosystem.

For several years, at Csoftmty we have been carrying out different initiatives addressed at promoting the role of women and at growing female participation:

1. Program for  reconversion of female software engineers. Jointly organized with the municipality of Monterrey, to train women who have studied other careers not related to IT.

2. The hour of  code, a program in collaboration with one of our cluster member companies, training around 250 girls to learn basic programming and complemented with conferences on self-esteem and soft skills.

3. Diploma for Women's  Empowerment with a focus on technology companies, as a mean to open the way for more women in technology companies and organizations. Still less than 20% of women work in the tech industry.

4. Axtateen Program  for children, to promote interest in STEM careers. We are launching the 6th edition of the program, where Csoftmty has received support from international organizations like the Motorola Solutions Foundation for research and development of study programs. We have a group focused on girls called "Art and animations: Introduction to programming through art" and we have trained more than 1,500 girls and boys through this project, giving children with limited resources the opportunity to acquire this specific knowledge on programming.

5. Panel sessions  about women in Technology within the cluster, to amplify women’s voices in Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Creative Industries, Industry 4.0 and Information Technologies in Mexico.

6. In the same way, within CSOFTMTY, the Retail committee, shows stories of different leading women and what they have achieved in some of the most recognized companies in Mexico.

Thank you Ángeles and Csoftmty for sharing this initiatives! Do you have other cluster stories to share with us? Contact us!

These and similar initiatives are usually shared at the TCI Latin American Chapter and will be addressed at the CLAC2022 to be held in Monterrey next September.