The 2023 cohort of GMC’s Geelong Future Leaders of Industry and Girls Leading Advanced Manufacturing graduated recently at a special lunch hosted by The Gordon, where they heard from two inspirational speakers. Ross Mahon and Professor Tiffany Walsh, both from Deakin University, delivered strong messages: keep up your STEM studies, the jobs are incredibly diverse!
During the morning, students enjoyed a Geelong Tech workshop, designing and building an automated cardboard model using Hummingbird electronics and Snap! coding. Creations were highly innovative with a tremendous display of teamwork, problem solving and triumph.
This year we had 44 students from 11 Geelong schools participating. In total 20 industry tours and workshops were arranged, including visits to Godfrey Hirst, Thornton Engineering, Boomaroo Nurseries, Air Radiators, Hanlon Industries, Ford, GHD, Viva Energy, Bob White Electrix, Barwon Asset Solutions, Deakin and The Gordon. Students were inspired by industry leaders and role models and absorbed by site tours.
Feedback highlighted the program’s value
From students:
The best aspect of GFLOI /GLAM was: “Being able to visit and go behind the scenes at various workplaces, especially some that I didn’t know existed or what they did. I gained a lot of insight in regards to my future in stem. I really loved being able to form such great friendships with the other girls as well!”
“The best aspect of GFLOI for me was gaining insight to organisations diverse range of career options and learning more about these pathways”
“Learning about the experiences and aspects of the journeys of the people we met”
Parents:
“Being able to see a career type in a workplace is so much more valuable than hearing about it in theory”
“It gave an excellent insight to roles and experiences that she may not have given a second thought about, and the ability to visit on site was fabulous”
And industry partners:
“It was great to see such a great group of engaged students”
“It was our pleasure; the students were great. Our staff really enjoyed the experience too; all feedback received was overwhelmingly positive”
GFLOI & GLAM are supported by Skilling the Bay