A NEW grassroots capacity building program is aiming to upskill young rural, regional and remote women in order to help them start-up a career or venture creation in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
The Women's STEM JumpStart program is being run by Value Creators and includes boot camps, mentoring and an annual connector forum with participants and business.
It will spotlight STEM opportunities in agriculture, agtech, food production, natural resources, environmental science, information/digital technology, which are all important sectors for regional growth, innovation, economic recovery and job creation.
Value Creators co-director Ann Maree O'Callaghan said the program would deliver foundational skills and grassroots capacity building for young regional women to jumpstart their career in STEM.
"The program will give women the confidence to launch and propel their STEM career and take-up STEM opportunities," Ms O'Callaghan said.
"It will build confidence, mindset, communication, and leadership, as well as highlight opportunities, demonstrate pathways, establish networks, and connect participants.
"In doing so, these young women will be ready for STEM opportunities, better equipped to access local jobs, identify the next training step and take on leadership roles for a positive future in STEM."
A total of 10 regional boot camp programs will be delivered across WA over three years, reaching up to 200 young regional women from school leavers to early career people, broadly 18-35 years.
There will be three to four programs in the first financial year of the program, with the first set to kick off in the Peel region on December 9-10.
While some people in broadacre farming might think that is terrible timing with harvest, there are a lot of agricultural based businesses and people not in broadacre who it would suit.
The project will be delivered in partnership with the Rural Regional Remote Women's Network of WA (RRR Network).
Value Creators co-director Maree Gooch said they were proud to be partnering with the RRR Network as it had a brand that was really well respected.
"We recognise that the brand of the RRR Network is very well regarded and is recognised as being a part of good, reputable and meaningful projects," Ms Gooch said.
"We felt they would be engaging with the cohort of women that we also want to engage with which helps to provide us with a springboard into that network."
For young rural, regional and remote women, their capacity to pivot to new opportunities in STEM and to take advantage of incentives from the government, is a long way off where it needs to be.
Ms Gooch said they were passionate about helping set young women up for success.
"As such, foundational skills for life are embedded in the program, which are essential but often neglected," she said.
"The program will focus on building confidence and capacity in young regional women who have not previously been encouraged to uptake STEM opportunities."
The boot camp style workshop content has been carefully designed for young females embarking on a STEM career, wanting to reskill, upskill into STEM, or for female founders and innovators wanting to explore venture creation opportunities based on STEM.
Given the current situation of not enough people focusing on careers in STEM areas, the program has been designed to fast track female led STEM opportunities by instilling the confidence to jump-start their career or begin a new venture.
"The program has been specifically designed to fill a gap and meet a recognised need to support young regional women with the confidence, resilience, foundational skills to consider, approach and navigate STEM," Ms Gooch said.
"This can help create jobs and build nationally and globally competitive and diverse industries, with existing resources such as the Girls in STEM Toolkit (The GiST) to be utilised as part of the content."
A cornerstone of the program will be an annual forum which will serve as a connector for alumni with potential employers, universities, schools and vocational education and training (VET).
The forum will be held annually and will be an interactive opportunity for the graduates to network in shark tank style with STEM-based business.
"The program will spotlight STEM opportunities for women in agriculture, natural resources, environmental science and information digital technology," Ms O'Callaghan said.
"It will demonstrate career pathways, establish new networks, and connect young regional women in STEM with industry and employers."
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