The European institute for Gender Equality released a report* earlier this year in which they clearly stated that “in the EU and the United Kingdom, only 16 % of AI-skilled individuals are women (LinkedIn, 2019). The gender gap in the AI workforce widens with career length. Women with more than 10 years of work experience in AI represent 12 % of all AI professionals, while women with 0–2 years’ experience represent 20 % of all AI professionals.” To facilitate a better link between University education and entering the workforce, we created FEMAIS in collaboration with our partners.

FEMAIS is a pilot mentoring scheme for female AI students at NTNU, that was initiated by NorwAI and the Norwegian Open AI Lab. Experienced professionals from our partners joined as mentors for the 15 students who applied to participate. On April 28thwe organized the kick-off in Trondheim.

During the kickoff invited speaker shared their experiences and advice on being mentor and mentee. The FEMAIS mentees got to meet their mentors for a chat for the very first time. It’s now up to the mentors and mentees to keep up the conversation before we meet up again for a midterm workshop during the Autumn.

The intention of FEMAIS is to contribute to increasing the number of female students pursuing careers in tech-positions both in academia, the institute sector and in the industry. This is a pilot project, and it will be evaluated after one year. We have encouraged female students with different expectations and career goals to sign up for this mentorship program, and we have therefor welcomed mentors from a wide range of levels in the different organizations. The mentees have been matched with a mentor with basis in personal descriptions and preferences. The mentoring aims to connect students with professionals (women and men)  that can answer questions on career planning and starting working life.