Companies support the inclusion of women with disabilities in tech professions within the RADIA programme.

A total of fifteen leading companies from the technology sector will collaborate with the second edition of the RADIA Programme, Indra 21/22 edition, promoted by the ONCE Foundation, the CEOE Foundation and the Conference of Social Councils of Spanish universities, welcoming the forty-four women with disabilities who have been participating since last October.

The companies involved are Amadix, Atos, Siemens, the law firm Garrigues, Accenture, IED Electronics, Inditex, Narrativa, the Movistar Riders video games team, Quirón Salud, the SIRT Group, Ghenova, Indra, Minsait and Zerolynx.

The names of the companies that have joined the initiative were announced during the event held at the ONCE Foundation’s Digital Talent HUB called “Real Work @RADIA”. The event was attended by Alberto Durán, Executive Vice-President of the ONCE Foundation; Fátima Báñez, President of the CEOE Foundation, Antonio Abril Abadín, President of the Conference of Social Councils of Spanish Universities, and Ángel Bonet, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communication at Minsait.

José Luis Martínez Donoso, Director General of the ONCE Foundation, and Isabel Martínez Lozano, Director of Programmes with Universities and Promotion of Young Talent at the same organisation, also took part.

In her speech, Fátima Báñez stressed that, “in a changing world, the Spanish society needs to have confidence, and that is what we are trying to do from the civil society with projects such as Radia”. “Talent in its diversity’, she continued, “is what will enable the Spanish society to progress, but in an inclusive way. That is where Radia comes in, which is a great social innovation project”. “We care about our country, about our people and we are committed to those who need it the most, now and in the future”, she concluded.

In turn, Alberto Durán thanked the companies that will host the participants in the course during this phase of the programme for their involvement.
“It is important that we break down barriers and glass ceilings and that women with disabilities gradually occupy a relevant space in the technology sector. This can only be achieved with the collaboration of all the stakeholders involved, something of which this programme is a clear example”, he reiterated.

Along the same lines, Antonio Abril stressed that “this programme demonstrates the importance of promoting the connection between universities and companies and their social commitment to facilitate access to the labour market without excluding anyone, especially qualified female talent, through training in digital skills”.

Finally, Ángel Bonet congratulated the participating women “for their preparation, effort and strength to overcome personal challenges” and underlined the value that initiatives such as Radia have for labour integration and global accessibility in aspects like diversity, the integration of women in the STEM field or social impact. In this regard, he recalled that “technology plays an essential role in solving many of the social and environmental problems we are suffering as a society” and alluded to the value of digitisation as a key to contributing to the “great challenges ahead of us, with special emphasis on disability and women”.

The participants, who are currently in the interview process, began the three-phase training last autumn, after having passed a selection process to which almost two hundred women with disabilities applied.

In this last phase, called Real Work, those selected will receive digital training in 100 4-hour sessions and will be mentored by professionals for internships in the companies mentioned above. During this period, they will work in professional fields related to artificial intelligence, fintech, e-sport, ecommerce, cybersecurity, biotechnology, blockchain or Green tech. 

Radia Programme
The RADIA WOMEN’S DIGITAL INCLUSION Programme takes its name from Radia Perlman, the creator of one of the world’s most widely used communication protocols that makes networks stable, robust, and secure.

Currently, only one out of every six ICT specialists in the labour market are women. This is compounded by the fact that disability makes it difficult for women to be included in higher education and employment. For this reason, the purpose of the program is to offer training and jobs that include more women with disabilities in the digital sector, recognizing both the value of their contributions and their talent, which is essential for building an inclusive, competitive, and dynamic digital society.

From this standpoint, RADIA establishes a series of steps aimed at increasing the number of female university students with disabilities employed in jobs based on the use of digital technology.