In a bid to provide women in management positions with skills to succeed in the energy and water sectors, the Energy and Water Sector Education and Training Authority (EWSETA), in collaboration with Wits Business School, has launched an executive leadership programme.
The event, Women in Leadership, started at the Wits Business School’s Parktown, premises in Johannesburg on Thursday.
Mpho Mookapele, the chief executive of EWSETA, said: “According to the EWSETA 2019/20 Sector Skills Plan, in 2019 the sector employed 34% women and 66% men. The same report details that while there has been an increase in representation by women in managerial positions, women remain under-represented at 38% in these roles.”
She said EWSETA was mandated to drive skills development and gender imperatives, so that the sectors were more equitably represented by women.
“In funding this programme, EWSETA seeks to capacitate women operating in mid-to senior-level management positions with the skills they require to gain their rightful place in what for too long has been a male-dominated environment,” she said.
EWSETA has selected 20 women to attend the programme at EWSETA’s expense.
Eskom’s Smart Grid department manager Bridgette Bodlingwe is one of the women selected. She oversees 130 employees in her department.
EWSETA’s statement said: “Bodlingwe is passionate about personal development, motivation, mentoring and mindset shift. Amongst other accolades, she was appointed the Eskom Women Advancement Programme (EWAP) champion of the year in 2016 and the team which she co-led won a EWAP Team of the Year award the same year.”
Bodlingwe said the challenged women in leadership faced had encouraged her to apply for the programme.
“The outcomes should be improved confidence, leadership skills, and the effective application of knowledge, as a women leader in a male-dominated industry. This, without losing my feminism and uniqueness in resolving the strategic challenges faced by the industry for the benefit of the country,” she said.
EWSETA said the objective of the initiative was to help to transform the thinking patterns of women working in leadership positions.
“It seeks to create an innovative, culturally intelligent workforce which will thrive through the use of strategic thinking and cutting-edge leadership skills.”
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE