Roar, Natalia, and a group of dedicated volunteers - both international and Norwegian - launched InTechGrate late this September. The speaker line-up says something about how much this network resonates locally and nationally:
- The Minister of Digitalisation and Public Governance, Karianne Tung, talked about her ambitions for Norway being the best and most digitalized country - and how diversity is a success factor for this.
- NAV´s IT Principal Officer, Derviş Mansuroğlu, defined diversity as the visible and invisible differences that all of us have - being international, but also being Norwegian with a multicultural background, or neurodivergent, or queer. Speaking a dialect, or managing a disability. Having a spectrum of lived experiences and different knowledge.
- Two career programs dedicated to refugees in Trondheim highlighted the incredible strength and resourcefulness of participants - who manage to find jobs and learn Norwegian, in one year.
I joined because I know first-hand how important networks are for “outsiders” - for whatever reason. I moved out of the US 13 years ago, and moved between academia, government, and most recently, tech. At every step of my journey, the people in my network - Norwegians and internationals - opened doors.
This is the network that TechGrate wants to be: a place for tech professionals to connect with each other, to recognize and grow knowledge and strengths; a place for forward-thinking employers to harness the competitive advantages that diversities bring.
See more about our mission and for our next meetings here: InTechGrate.
By the way: Natalie got a permanent position!
