Due to the global pandemic storm, digital technology marketing has become the new favorite of the economic market. In order to gain insights into the development of skills in digital marketing and gender trends, Workforce Development Agency (WDA), Ministry of Labor (MOL), has organized the “ Innovation, Inspiration, Inclusion：Women’s Economic Empowering, New Media Digital Upskilling (WEDU) Seminar” from 30 November to 3 December 2021. Through online virtual event, experts and representatives from APEC member economies who are in relation to gender perspective, digital technology and marketing strategies have been gathered to explore the approaches to reskill and upskill digital marketing talents, and demonstrated some important observations about future trend.
In today’s seminar, APEC Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG) Lead Shepherd Prof. Dong Sun Park, APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) Chair Renee Graham, and APEC HRDWG Capacity Building Network (CBN) Coordinator Rosanna Urdaneta have joined in and give their opening remarks, where all recognized digital marketing is the meeting point of ideas, technical ability, business nous, and strategic thinking which offers wide scope for women. In addition, representatives from Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan pointed out that the integration of gender perspective in digital marketing will be able to break geographical boundaries and stereotypes, provide better employment opportunities for women and other disadvantaged workers.
The Director General of Workforce Development Agency (WDA), Mr. Tsai Meng Liang, mentioned in the seminar that in response to changes in the environment driven by digital technology, delivering the right mix of skills both to meet individuals’ needs and to match the requirements of the labor market will inevitably become the primary goal in the field of human resource development. Furthermore, fostering diversity, equality, and inclusion to attract talents from different backgrounds, viewpoints, and experiences, is the starting point for the industry to move towards more sustainable and resilient growth.
Director General Tsai indicated that WEDU project has been funded by APEC since 2019, showing great supports from member economies. The purpose of the project is to explore the positioning and needs of harnessing new media to participate in the digital economy, develop the "Training Package: the power of gender in digital marketing" with pilot scheme, and organize the iCAP course on "Analysis of the Effectiveness of Online Marketing". In this workshop, the experts and representatives provided suggestions for advancement, the trainees who have completed the pilot scheme also shared their experiences and achievements from the WEDU project that builds a solid foundation for networking, capacity building, and expanding vocational training cooperation.
WDA noted that digital technology is reshaping the face of marketing. And the gender perspective is not only stimulating creativity, but also driving the demand for non-traditional talents, which would cause an unprecedented impact on the connotation and objective of vocational training. Through public-and-private partnership, WDA will continue to strengthen vocational training system to stay abreast of advancements, as well as share novel and practical cross-cutting skills with APEC economies.