As Patty underscores, the current skills gap threatens the U.S. economy and global competitiveness. This is especially profound in the technology sector and is critically important to the work we do at Accenture. In 2015, there were 500,000 new computing jobs to be filled but fewer than 40,000 new computer science graduates. The gender gap in computing is getting worse and has severe impacts on the U.S. economy. The percentage of women in the U.S. computing workforce will shrink from 24% to 22% in the next 10 years unless we take action now. Through our research with Girls Who Code titled Cracking the Gender Code, we identified key actions to get 3X more women in computing by (1) sparking interest in junior high, (2) sustaining engagement in high school and (3) inspiring a career after college.  Embedded throughout this research is a focus on providing mentorship and role model programs and project-based learning to help close the gender gap in computing. Teach to Work, complements this research, as it reinforces the importance of mentoring and provides actionable recommendations for how the business community can partner with educators to close the skills gaps.

Additionally, through our Skills to Succeed global corporate citizenship initiative, Accenture has a goal of equipping 3 million people world-wide with the skills to get a job or build a business by 2020. We partner with great nonprofit partners in the communities we live and work to achieve this goal. For us, this includes having our employees volunteer their time to serve as mentors and classroom facilitators – delivering career skilling sessions content (i.e. resume writing and mock interview skills) as well as imparting digital literacy, fluency skills and coding skills – to students from our nonprofit partners including KIPP Charter Schools, Cristo Rey, Genesys Works, and Year Up, among others. Additionally, select students from our nonprofit partners take part in our Skills to Succeed Intern Program. In FY17, Accenture hosted over 180 Skills to Succeed Interns across the U.S. The majority of these interns are in high school or rising freshmen in college, and this experience helps keep them on track for college and career success. Our S2S Interns are assigned to project teams and take on concrete projects during their internship experience. Past intern projects include designing and developing mobile apps, creating social media strategies for Accenture, our clients and more. At the conclusion of the internship, each intern presents what they learned throughout the internship and the impact of the internship on their college and career plans to an audience of their peers, Accenture supervisors, leadership and representatives from their nonprofit partners.

Patty’s book resonates with the work we do at Accenture and the impact we are seeing with our Skills to Succeed Initiative. We have seen that getting into the classroom, delivering career skilling content, serving as mentors and engaging with our many S2S Interns fuels are people. We are energized by our engagement with our nonprofit partners and with the youth that they serve. Our people know that this is work that matters. It aligns with Accenture’s broader core values, focus on stewardship, and commitment to inclusion and diversity. Patty’s section on “Why Mentor” aligns with what we hear from employees each day – that this work has deep impact on both the mentees and mentors. Additionally, some of our first Skills to Succeed Interns have graduated from college and have returned to Accenture as fulltime hires.  We are both contributing and helping to build a robust workforce at the macro sense, as well as developing our talent pipeline.

Patty’s section on “How to Mentor” provides rigor and discipline to mentoring. It provides an easy to follow playbook for those who may be interested in mentoring but don’t know where to start. Additionally, the tools, examples and methods are rigorous enough that even veterans in the workforce development and mentoring space can benefit!

The magnitude of the skills gap is significant. Closing the gap requires everyone’s participation. Patty’s book can help us take action now!”