Womens Day Xbox Logo

To celebrate International Women's Day, Xbox has revealed a new program aimed at helping women build careers in the games industry. The program will offer access to 1:1 coaching sessions in a number of countries including the UK and US, with the aim of fostering career development in gaming.

More details on the program are coming mid-March, where we assume we'll learn more about how people can sign up. The program involves Xbox's owned game studios, of which there are now a lot, in the hope that some applicants will go on to land jobs at Xbox development teams.

Xbox Mentorship Program

Xbox goes on to explain that, while the ESA says 45% of gamers identify as women, that percentage is just 30% when it comes to game developers. Microsoft Gaming itself hovers around that average, with 29.7% of its workforce being women.

If the program is of interest to you, some of the women already working at Xbox, along with others in the broader industry, have taken over the Xbox podcast this week. There, you can learn about their roles in the industry, and how they grew successful careers in gaming.

There will also be a live panel at this year's GDC event, where many of the women at Xbox studios will discuss their career journeys and what brought them to Xbox. The panel will feature the likes of Mary McGuane (Xbox studio manager at Obsidian, Double Fine and InXile), Kate Rayner (head of technology for The Coalition), Shannon Loftis (former studio head for World’s Edge), Helen Chiang (corporate vice president Minecraft franchise), Kim Swift (senior director of Cloud Gaming at Xbox Game Studios Publishing), and Bonnie Ross (studio head for 343 Industries).

If this program sounds appealing to you, keep an eye out for more details later this month.

[source news.xbox.com]