In this blog post, Khaled Benkrid and Nick Sample of Arm Education (education@arm.com) explore Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the workforce from an education perspective. With thanks to Tamika Curry Smith, Arm's Chief Diversity Officer, for her feedback and support.
Diversity, Equity, and inclusion (DEI) in any organization are not just moral imperatives. They are business imperatives, too. More diverse, equitable, and inclusive environments have been shown to result in higher levels of innovation, enterprise, and business performance [1]. Moreover, the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is having a fundamental impact on the nature of work. It is also affecting the supply and demand in labor markets. New and diverse talent is required to address these trends. For instance, according to the World Economic Forum’s "Future or Work Report 2020" [2], by 2025, 85 million jobs globally may be displaced. 97 million new roles may emerge because of a new division of labor between humans, machines, and algorithms. The overall rate of job creation is predicted to be positive, but larger numbers of current workers will need to be reskilled for new jobs.
Failure to do this will result in major socio-economic upheavals globally. The modern economy therefore cannot afford to lose talent through lack of DEI. In other words, DEI is a pre-requisite for socio-economic development and peace worldwide.
There are many dimensions of diversity and inclusion (see Figure 1.) At the core level, we find personality traits (for example, openness, consciousness) which are often immutable. Following these are internal dimensions such as race, age, and gender. They are also called protected characteristics as discrimination based on any of these is prohibited by law in most countries. Beyond these, we find external dimensions (for example, marital status, location, income) which can change over time but are part of an individual’s profile at any moment in time. We then have organizational dimensions such as function, seniority, and union affiliation. Finally, there are countries of operation (for example, their political and economic systems, laws, culture) which are also part of an individual’s work profile. Combined, these dimensions affect the way individuals think and operate, hence the diversity of thought dimension. It is crucial for any organization to first analyze and define the gaps in all these dimensions, in prioritized order. Open and transparent data and information gathering is crucial.
Figure 1. Diversity and Inclusion Focus Areas (adapted from Hermann Global, Diversity of Thought White Paper, 2017 [1]) (click the image to expand it and view in detail)
Once the gaps and priorities are clearly defined, it is then important to define the circles of control, influence, and acceptance (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Circles of control/influence/acceptance (click the image to expand it and view in detail)
Arm Education’s mission is to support learners and educators globally to develop the interest, knowledge, and skills that enable a lifetime of productive engagement with technology. Through a K12/school program [3], and a university program [4], Arm Education:
Through this work, lack of DEI in the education pipeline has revealed itself to be a major impediment to plugging the education and skills gaps in technology education and development. Figure 3 presents a DEI ‘pipeline’ model we have developed as a result.
The model draws on the metaphor, presenting each stage of the education process as part of the pipeline. The opportunities from one stage to the next narrow, with the pipeline at its widest for primary and secondary education (over three quarters of countries, for which UNESCO has recorded data, stipulate 9 or more years of compulsory education [5]). Thereafter it progressively narrows, reflecting the reduction in throughput and potentially the diversity/equity/inclusion of learners on educational pathways that might lead to diverse careers. The ‘leaky pipeline’ metaphor is helpful in illustrating the multiple educational experiences and key decision points faced by potential workers. For all learners, choices they make at the ages of 15 or 16 and again at 17- or 18-years of age will have a decisive impact on their prospects of employment. Those choices are influenced by multiple contextual factors, highlighted in the model, including government policy. For example: the school curriculum and the extent to which it appeals to a diverse range of young people; how it is assessed; what this signals in terms of the value we place on certain skills, knowledge, and attributes; access to apprenticeships and other vocational pathways into the STEM workforce.
To be clear, the point of the model is not to suggest that all young people should be channeled towards a career in technology or any other specific field. Instead, it makes the case that everyone should be enabled to make positive, informed choices about their future, and where this does not happen at scale, we all have a stake in addressing the problem. For example, only 5.6% of US high school students are enrolled in a Computer Science course [6]; again, in the US, of over 2,361 recipients of doctorates in computer and information sciences, only 26 were Black and 44 Hispanic [7]; in the UK only 19% of IT specialists in the UK workforce are women [8]. Meeting the demand of the modern economy, and providing access to opportunities for all can only happen if every individual’s talent is nurtured and recognized (both informally and formally) by educational institutions and wider society: all the way from parental/guardian’s formative impact on young people’s science capital to the talent acquisition strategies employed by companies like Arm, and every stage in between.
Furthermore, Arm, our partners and the wider industry cannot address the diversity, equity, and inclusion at the point of organizational entry alone. On the contrary, it requires a federated effort with stakeholders across industry and education, including government, schools, universities, and training providers to address the problems at every other point.
Figure 3. DEI and the talent pipeline (click the image to expand it and view in detail)
With a holistic model view, we recommend that every organization develops a strategy and plan to plug its own priority DEI gaps, with a combination of active action (zone of control) and influencing others (zone of influence). Regarding major political, economic, and legal shifts (zone of acceptance), we believe it is still important to outline these clearly and highlight their impact. The entire process must be reconducted and appraised regularly to provide feedback loops and optimize outcomes over time. This is a collective action endeavor that is generational in scale and impact.
Education is about developing and changing minds - the quest for DEI is a noble cause and a major opportunity for truly transformational impact. Arm Education looks forward to playing its part, working in partnership, bringing in experiences and networks from across the world, with a systematic approach to solving multi-dimensional complex DEI-related problems.
[1] Hermann (2017). White Paper: Diversity of Thought. Retrieved from https://www.thinkherrmann.com [2] McKinsey (2020). Diversity wins: How inclusion matters. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters [3] World Economic Forum (2000). The Future of Jobs Report. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2020 [4] The Arm School Program: https://www.arm.com/schools [5] The Arm University Program: https://www.arm.com/university [6] World Bank (2022). Compulsory Education, duration (years). Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.COM.DURS [7] Code.org (2022), State of Computer Science Education, Retrieved from https://advocacy.code.org/2022_state_of_cs.pdf [8] NCSES (2020). Doctorate recipients, by subfield of study, citizenship status, ethnicity, and race: 2020. Retrieved from https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf22300/table/22 [9] British Computer Society (2021). BCS diversity report 2021, gender: key findings. Retrieved from https://www.bcs.org/policy-and-influence/diversity-and-inclusion/bcs-diversity-report-2021-women-in-it/gender-key-findings/