A non–governmental organisation operating under the aegis of Grow Women Leaders has expressed a commitment to encouraging more female participation in Nigeria’s workplaces.
The NGO’s founder, Mrs Tracy Folorunsho-Barry, at a press conference yesterday in Lagos, said the non-profit talent platform, which has been focused on empowering women, particularly immigrants and Blacks in the Diaspora, has come to replicate its feat in Nigeria.
The entrepreneur based in Canada urged Nigerian women to be open to mentorship and learn about the prevailing global dynamics of employability and sustainable career progression.
She said, “We want to help them get hired; we want to be able to work with employers to accommodate women in the workforce; it is what we are doing. We have seen the unemployment rate in Nigeria, which also played out. It is not easy. We will be working with employers of labour to create employment for women in the country.’’
She said a lot of women in the country facing challenges need to be in a community where they can be empowered and see other women grow, saying that the primary responsibility of her organization is to carry out career mapping and strategy to identify where they can fit in and excel.
‘’At Grow Women Leaders as a result of what we do we are able to get women hired and advance their career. We do that through job matching, training and ongoing career support for retention. Like I always tell our partners, getting women hired is one thing, getting the women retained in a position is another thing. So we at Grow Women Leaders ensured that employers are able not only diversify their workforce but can also retain women for the long term.
‘’So basically, our mission is to increase the participation of women in the workforce. We have been doing a lot of ground work in Nigeria for some time, but right now we want to take it to the next level.’’
She said getting a job overseas has been a huge challenge for immigrants who travelled there for greener pastures with a high-level education, noting that the opportunity to secure jobs does not come easy.
Folorunsho-Barry said the organisation has been able to make a positive impact on women by training thousands in Canada in the past eight years. Over 80 percent of the women get hired because of the training, connections, and strategy.
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