“I am passionate about skills development and empowering individuals and businesses to achieve success through technology. Being able to support those most in need through my not-for-profit organisation, whilst still helping drive change within businesses, has been one of my greatest accomplishments,” says Lisa Varga, founder and director of The Digital Collective.
“It has been incredibly rewarding to use my voice to amplify change and empower others to do the same. To date, we’ve been able to train over 600 000 people worldwide and work with amazing people and brands such as Google, Walmart, Santander, Fujitsu, HSBC, Tik Tok and Amazon.”
Lisa describes herself as a problem solver at heart, with a mix of big picture thinking and practical operational problem solving.
“My current career path is that of COO for startup and scale-up organisations. I have been working with large tech companies all the way down to grass-root, scale-up and not-for-profit organisations. All of these had a common theme of making the world a better and more equitable place through skills development, diversity and inclusion or digitisation. I’ve really enjoyed being able to support businesses grow and thrive within the digital age and seeing the impact that it has on the people they employ as well as their customers and end users.”
According to Lisa, there is a lot of work to be done around the digital divide at a global level. “We are in the digital age and being part of the labour market means needing some level of basic digital proficiency. However, the stats are horrific with many adults still lacking the basic digital skills needed for their jobs. As such I am really looking to scale my non-profit to reach more people across the globe and support employment through basic digital skills adoption.”
The reason that this is something so close to Lisa’s heart is her experience of growing up in Zimbabwe at the height of the political unrest and hyperinflation. “This made access to education and digital technologies really difficult for the vast majority of the population and caused the incredible disparity between communities.”
As a first-generation university student raised by a single mother (Lisa studied Human Life Sciences with Psychology at Stellenbosch University) she saw for herself how the privilege of being able to attend a university and access education and skills completely transformed her life and opportunities.
“I’ve made it my mission to use that privilege to create the same opportunities for those who wouldn’t be able to access it otherwise,” she explains.
Reflecting on 2023’s International Women’s Day theme, #EmbraceEquity, Lisa says: “In order to embrace equity you need to first seek to understand it. Equity isn’t just another word for equality.Equity takes into account that people start off with different levels of privilege and it aims to ensure we are all able to access the same opportunities.
“Embracing equity is about understanding intersectionality and how you can use your privilege and voice to elevate others in the room. Change doesn’t happen overnight – we need to create allies and advocates in order to catalyse change.”
- Come listen to Lisa on Tuesday 21 March in London as she discusses how we as women can celebrate and value our differences.
- To commemorate International Women’s Day that is celebrated across the globe on 8 March, the Stellenbosch Women Alumnae Network (SWAN) is shining the spotlight on our remarkable women, not just for a day, but for the entire month of March.
- Read more here:
https://console.vpaper.ca/stellenbosch-university/swan-iwd23_eng/