Creating diversity in the technology workforce doesn’t have to be costly, experts said Tuesday at the eMerge Americas tech conference in Miami Beach.
“Not always [do] we need money to make things happen,” said Ricardo Santos, director of education transformation for Cisco Brasil. “For mentoring programs, we can have our employees across the world share their knowledge. … This is priceless.”

Corporations, governments and nonprofits should work together to tackle the tech sector’s diversity problem, panelists said at the second annual tech conference, which attracted about 10,000 attendees to the Miami Beach Convention Center.
South Florida-based organization ITWomen works with several local corporations — including Baptist Health South Florida, Burger King and Carnival Cruise Lines — to try to help more women fill technology roles.
ITWomen takes girls on company field trips, connects them with mentors and helps them land college scholarships, president Claire Marrero said.
“Our mission is very much to reach both underserved girls and girls across the public schools in [South Florida],” she said. “We need a lot more help from the corporate sector to help us continue that work.”
Corporate social responsibility programs, such as Cisco’s global IT training academy, are “tremendous tools” that governments and nonprofits should take advantage of, Santos said.
It’s not enough to reach out to students, he added. Teachers should be well-equipped to help a wide range of students prepare for a technology career.
“If we’re thinking about inclusive innovation, if we don’t focus on developing good teachers in all areas — very holistic — this isn’t going to happen,” he said.
In the Dominican Republic, the federal government is focused on community development centers that help improve Internet access and digital literacy, said Dominican Republic Vice President Margarita Cedeño de Fernandez.
The country has made several public-private partnerships to help Dominican workers land high-skilled tech jobs, she said. The government is also working with Code.org to help citizens learn computer programming.
Initiatives to close the skills gap are key for impoverished communities, but also for other underrepresented demographics, such as women, Cedeño de Fernandez said.
““We are working very, very hard with women and girls to reduce that gender gap,” she said. “Women in technology occupy better positions, and they have better salaries and equity conditions with men, which is not always the same in other sectors.”