About time, we’re finally talking about transferable skills when women return to work

Women often underestimate the transferability of their skills when seeking a return to the workplace or undertaking a career change, experts have claimed.

Rosemary Driscoll, a director with CyberCX Academy, said female workers and other minority groups currently make up just 21 per cent of the cybersecurity workforce.

She said this figure needs to change and the industry needs to “walk the walk”.

“I think if there’s a trend we’re seeing in the academy it’s often that people underrate the transferability of their skills, people who have experience working with clients,” Driscoll told a panel discussion on the second day of the 2023 Future Women Leadership Summit in Sydney.

“I’ll be honest with you, a lot of cyber security is just problem solving, so those kinds of skills, they translate really well.”

Moments before presenting on the panel, CyberCX Academy did “walk the walk” with Driscoll announcing an all-women cohort pilot program to increase the number of women working in cyber security.

The program offers part-time paid work, up to 29 hours, between the hours of 9.30am and 2.30pm Monday and Thursday.

The program is exclusively for women and non-binary people and does not require any previous experience or qualifications in the cyber industry.

“I think we’re all really starting to realise that it’s not just one career or one thing.”

Rebecca Hansen, Future Women’s Head of Jobs Academy, said programs like CyberCX Academy are “truly everything” to people seeking career changes.

“In terms of returnship programs and training programs, they are so effective because they are removing barriers that are preventing women and non-binary people from entering the industry,” Hansen told the panel.

“Rosemary referenced there was 21 per cent representation in cyber security,  so clearly – as she said – the status quo needs to change. We need to move it from talking into meaningful and intentional action if we want to see change.”

Fellow panelist, The Honourable Bronwyn Taylor MLC, the NSW Minister for Women agreed with Driscoll that women are just starting to realise the transferability of skills.

“When I was a nurse I never gave myself credibility for actually being a really good problem solver, because I’d get a dirty, nasty wound and I would be able to heal it,” Taylor said.

“I didn’t see it in that way and I didn’t realise how much of my counselling and psychology skills I would use in the parliament. That’s been endless.

“But I think we’re all really starting to realise that it’s not just one career or one thing. And I think for regional women and for those of you in the city who want to move to the regions, I think we’re having a real renaissance of country women.”

Taylor said regional women are highly skilled and highly motivated but perhaps haven’t previously had the opportunities.

“I think now the opportunities in the regions are incredible and the opportunities for regional women who are incredible, resilient, amazing people, it’s really their time,” she said.

Susanne Legena, the chief executive of Plan International Australia, said that in her professional experience she has found young people are designing a better future for themselves.

“They are teaching me about how change happens,” Legena told the panel.

“Young people are designing a future but it’s an intersectional future as well. They’re super diverse, they bring all different kinds of lived experience. They challenge me to really rethink the binaries of gender, to rethink who is missing from the table.

“So I think when they are designing their own businesses, because they are almost all designing their own businesses, as well as working in businesses, as well as side hustles as well as social enterprises they are running, they are thinking in a completely transformative way.”

For more from the Future Women Leadership Summit 2023, read how our biggest failures can often lead to the greatest opportunities. 

PHOTOGRAPHER: MARK BROOME