CARSOME, Southeast Asia’s largest integrated car e-commerce platform, has joined forces with Microsoft to drive women’s participation and leadership in technology. The partnership will adopt Microsoft‘s Code; Without Barriers initiative, which offers upskilling courses, hackathons, skills challenges, and mentorship programs for women employees across CARSOME’s operations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore.
The initiative aims to enhance employability for women, create a more equal workforce, and establish a strong ecosystem and community of women leaders in artificial intelligence and technology to accelerate national digital transformation and innovation.
Azam Saham
According to a World Economic Forum study, only 26% of professionals in data and AI are women, and only 12% are cloud computing professionals. Despite a strong record among Southeast Asian technology companies to hire women, the region is still far from reaching true parity in the number of women who work in tech compared with other industries.
To close this gender gap, the collaboration between CARSOME and Microsoft aims to strengthen enablers that are key to providing women with access to innovation and technology-related opportunities.
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CARSOME’s Group President & Chief Financial Officer, Juliet Zhu, said, “CARSOME is strongly positioned to support and accelerate women’s representation in the tech and automotive sectors. Towards this end, CARSOME will digitally upskill 30% of our women employees by 2026 in our offices across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, especially in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Data, and Technology.” The collaboration cements CARSOME’s ambition to help drive more equitable growth, especially in the frontier markets it is present in.
The Director of Developers and Digital Natives at Microsoft Asia Pacific, Annie Mathew, said, “Code; Without Barriers was incubated in APAC, and it’s the first program to bring together a coalition of developers, industries, businesses, and allies to literally break barriers for women in tech! We’re excited to have CARSOME join us to empower a new generation of women in technology across Southeast Asia as we together drive a more inclusive digital economy in Asia Pacific.”
Collaboration
The collaboration between CARSOME and Microsoft is a step towards promoting diversity and equity in tech and innovation-centric areas, benefiting not only employees but also the organization and the transition towards equitable digital-first societies. For more information, visit CARSOME’s official website.
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