This is the theme discussed on the “International Women’s Day” in the Auditorium of Wärtsilä Italia
8 March 2016 – Debating on some aspects of Diversity and stimulating ways to overcome cultural barriers about the presence of women in technical roles: this is the aim of the Round Table organized by Wärtsilä entitled “The VALUE of DIVERSITY within a company – Professional profiles of women and men – comparing experiences” that was held this morning in the Auditorium of Wärtsilä Italia in Trieste.
The meeting is part of the Diversity programme by Wärtsilä Italia also considering the first results reached with the Equal Opportunities Commission of the Municipality of Trieste and the technical institutes “Nautico” and “A.Volta”; the protocol signed over the last weeks is aimed at simplifying involvement and training of female high school students through summer time internships at the global leader in complete lifecycle power solutions for the marine and energy markets.
“The company has created a complex programme on Diversity, and gender diversity is surely the most interesting issue; the round table on the occasion of the International Women’s Day is a way to discuss this theme with successful examples; - said Raffele Ferrio, HR Director of Wärtsilä Italia – The protocol signed recently together with the Equal Opportunities Commission of Trieste and two important technical schools on the territory, aims at developing a strategy to attract women to our company”.
Ornella Urpis, President of the Equal Opportunities Commission of the Municipality of Trieste opened the round table explaining how in Italy technical training is still dominated in Italy by a gender culture, which makes girls rather follow human sciences. “The main objectives are two strictly connected points: foster professional inclusion of girls in the marine and aviation worlds and thus making technical training more attractive. From the very beginning the project has been driven by a fruitful collaboration between companies on the territory and the Nautical and Volta Institutes. Already in summer 2014, four ex students from the Nautical Institute, have had the chance to take part in internships at Ocean S.r.l and two of them have obtained a temporary job”.
The round table featured professional entrepreneurs from different fields such as Serena Zacchigna – Group Leader of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotech, who said “The secret could be that of transforming diversity into opportunity, enhance differences which distinguish the female organism from the male and exalt those abilities that for women are easier, for instance fine manual skills, meticulous work and a more analytical mentality. In my experience collaboration with people that are different from myself, in terms of gender, training or character, has enabled me to reach goals and create a planning skill that alone I would have never imagined”.
Diversity was also discussed by Barbara Codan – Co-Founder and CEO of GeniusChoice who said “The start up world has no gender: what matters is the idea and it matters regardless of whether it has been thought by a woman or a man. The difficulty is non in being a woman but in presenting and implementing a project. I come from a technical-scientific education, which I integrated with business skills and all this has given me the tools to develop GeniusChoice. Nowadays institutions offer many opportunities for women who want to become entrepreneurs. There are bids, competitions and facilitations for women enterprises, but a lot of women still have to accept the fact they can become entrepreneurs”.
The other guests of the round table were Carlo Pestelli - Manager, Noise & Vibration and Paola Machetta – Laboratory Investigation Manager of Wärtsilä Italia, who chaired the meeting.