Geelong Manufacturing Council is taking a key role in building a strong regional advanced manufacturing workforce, with programs to support women’s participation and raise awareness of the huge range challenging and rewarding careers in the industry underway.
Geelong Future Leaders of Industry (GFLOI & GFLOI-VET) and Girls Leading Advanced Manufacturing (GLAM) programs launched on March 29 with 44 participants across the three streams. The Year 9 and 10 students have participated in 11 workplace tours in their program of immersion events, including visits to Godfrey Hirst, Thornton Engineering, Boomaroo Nurseries, Air Radiators, Hanlon Industries, Ford and GHD. During the visits participants meet with leaders and role models at various stages of their careers, as well as undertake workshops and view work being undertaken to help them understand what a role in advanced manufacturing might look like for them.
GFLOI-VET students visited The Gordon GTEC as part of the program. The students learned about communication and applying for jobs. They listened to the career journeys of three teachers at The Gordon, Andy Duong, Ollie Buckley and Kathy Mar. Andy talked to the group about the many opportunities for engineers in Geelong in the coming years. Yasmin Chalmers led them on a tour of campus facilities to see the range of courses available at The Gordon. They finished the day with a hands-on engineering activity with Andy.
GMC is excited to have also begun work on its Seed2STEM program, which will expand the highly successful Women in Manufacturing Network Mentoring and Girls Leading Advanced Manufacturing programs to a wider regional area, including Ballarat, Bendigo and Colac. The Seed2STEM program will provide avenues for secondary school girls and women in industry to become familiarised with female role models, pathways that can lead to a STEM career, and strategies to navigate the workplace and improve leadership/networking skills.
GFLOI & GLAM are supported by Skilling the Bay
Seed2STEM received funding from the Australian Government