WHY GIRLS IN ENGINEERING?
13% of Australia's Engineers
are Female
.png)
13%
Currently in Australia's Engineering Workforce, only 13% are female.
While this is not representative of Australia's population, herein lies a possible solution to meeting Australia's shortage of engineers.
Australia Faces a Shortage of Engineers
.png)
43%
According to a 2015 paper* published by Engineers Australia, we are currently experiencing a shortage of engineers, with only 43% of Australians being able to meet the current demands of our Engineering Profession.
Australia's Leaky Pipeline
As early as Grade 4, 67% of girls lose confidence in their ability to do Math.**
By the time they finish school, only 15% of undergraduate engineering students are female.
It it to be noted that 90% of females chose engineering because they were confident in their maths skills.***
Welding the Gap
Right now, we don't think we can increase the number of women entering the engineering workforce. It makes no sense when not even 1/5 of our engineering undergraduates are women. At some universities it's close to 25% which is really exciting but we've barely made a dent in the last 15 years overall. There's still a long way to go!
That's why our focus is on increasing the number of females pursuing an engineering degree to make up 50% of Australian Engineering Undergraduates.
In 2015 13,485 males applied to do engineering compared to 2,556 females.
So our goal is to help 10,000+ girls in Australian Schools make the change to Engineer their Future. Every. Year.
References
*1. Kaspura, A. (2017a). Engineers Make Things Happen. Institution of Engineers Australia. Retrieved from https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/resources/Public%20Affairs/Engineers%20Make%20Things%20Happen.pdf
**2. Prinsley, R., Smith, P., Baranyai, K. & Ladewig, M. (2016). Women in STEM – A story of attrition. Office of the Chief Scientist. Retrieved from https://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/OCS_Women_in_STEM_datasheet.pdf
***3. Mburu, W.P. & Hu, X. (2005). Female Engineering Students: Career Motivation and Their Learning Experience. In ASEE/AaeE 4th Global Colloquium on Engineering Education, Sydney, Australia.