Santa Farma Prepares 100 Women for the Future

Santa Farma Prepares 100 Women for the Future Santa Farma Pharmaceutical Company and Women in Technology Association (Wtech) will provide free training in Marketing and Sales Technologies, Business Analysis and Gamification to 100 young women who are in their final year or recently graduated from Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Information Technologies departments at universities and vocational schools, as part of the "Women Transforming Healthcare" project. The project, which will begin in June, will consist of three training classes delivered by the Women in Technology Association and mentoring support provided by Santa Farma Pharmaceutical Company managers. Upon completion of the one-year training program, participants will receive a digital certificate and will also be given priority opportunities for internships and employment in the healthcare sector.

More and Better-Equipped Women Managers in the Pharmaceutical Sector

Sema Yetkiner, Human Resources Director at Santa Farma Pharmaceutical Company: "Globalization, climate and demographic changes, technological development and digital transformation are affecting and transforming the socioeconomic infrastructure of all countries. The business world is also experiencing this change and transformation, and the conventional wisdom that has been accepted until today is losing its validity. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the business world and educational institutions to keep pace with rapidly accelerating technological development and digital transformation. Additionally, the pandemic has clearly accelerated digitalization and automation in the business world. To maintain continuity while remaining agile, the business world has had to utilize all opportunities offered by digital technology. Consequently, a significant skills gap has emerged across all countries. This skills gap has become a mega trend affecting the growth potential of companies and economies. Therefore, alongside formal vocational education, on-the-job and lifelong learning have become important agenda items in business life. In the face of this serious development, it has become clear that societies, all educational institutions, employer and employee organizations, and academic institutions must work together and in a coordinated manner, and this has been accepted as a common ground by all social partners. These trends in the business world impact female workers somewhat more. Santa Farma, which closely monitors and evaluates all these changes, has succeeded in increasing the ratio of women managers and above to 50 percent within its organization and has adopted leading the way in this regard as a social responsibility project. With this and similar projects, we want to inform the public that we aim to contribute to raising the rate of female employment and female managers in our country and in the pharmaceutical sector," he said. Zehra Öney, Founding Board Chair of Women in Technology Association: "Technology is coming to the forefront in the healthcare sector, which occupies a major place in our lives as it does in every sector. Particularly with the pandemic, online healthcare services revealed the existing need on the customer side and showed the world that work in this area needs to be advanced further with artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. According to Turkish Statistical Institute Health Expenditure Statistics, healthcare expenditures increased by 24.3 percent in 2020. With this situation, nearly 80 percent of healthcare service providers are expected to increase their investments in healthcare IT over the next decade. With internet-connected smart first aid systems, healthcare services are now moving into the robotics field. Remote patient monitoring technologies such as IoMT devices, and the introduction of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, are bringing virtual reality to the forefront in medical education. Since the healthcare IT market is expected to continue growing, this is directing us towards developing qualified expert human resources in this field. For this reason, Santa Farma, a leading institution in healthcare, is collaborating with Women in Technology Association to organize the "Women Transforming Healthcare" project so that 100 women who will choose healthcare as a career can specialize in and strengthen themselves in technology. Together, we will strengthen and develop women leaders in healthcare with technology knowledge. We believe that this project, which we launched to increase diversity in technology-producing human resources, will make a strong contribution particularly to women's development and employment in the rapidly growing healthcare sector, and thereby to Turkey's economy. We invite those who want to take their careers one step further with technology and those who want to seize career opportunities in the healthcare sector to these free training programs," she said.