At the beginning of May, MTA Queensland and the MTA Institute (RTO. 31529) held an Automotive Careers Breakfast event at the Association’s head office in Brisbane. A joint event to support MTA Queensland’s Auto Women initiative, which was established in 2022 to provide a supportive environment for women working across the automotive industry to network and grow, and the School to Work initiative, the goal of which is to support students with the information and skills they need to prepare for a career in automotive, more than 50 people, from women working in the industry to school students and their families, attended the breakfast event.
As well as partaking of a hearty breakfast and networking with likeminded others, attendees were able to check out some of the latest technology being used in automotive – from paint application techniques demonstrated by representatives of Axalta to electric vehicle and hybrid electric vehicle technology, to diagnostic, software and chassis repair technology demonstrated by MTA Institute Trainers. School students were also able to talk with Leanna Tucker, Automotive VET Officer for MTA Queensland, about pathways, options, and opportunities available to them.
Guest speaker at the event was Laura Angus, Executive Director of the National Careers Institute (part of the Australian Government’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations).
Focusing on the efforts that aim to enable more women to establish careers in industry, Mrs Angus said it was great to hear the success of the Auto Women initiative, and elements of it such as the Scholarship program, and said that the Australian Government would continue to drive to increase opportunities to women across automotive and other industries.
“Our mission at the Careers Institute is to provide people with a trusted source of information, and support projects to help those groups that might otherwise struggle or experience some sort of disadvantage progressing in whatever chosen career or sector that they might want to work in,” she said.
“It’s fabulous for me to come out and hear people talking, listening to the parents and individuals who are here today… and there are a few things I do want to say. That is to thank you, and organisations like this one, because this is what makes a difference. The work that happens here in promoting opportunities for women, particularly in traditional trades where women haven’t necessarily worked a lot, is really so terribly important. Everybody knows about the skills shortage – it’s on the news all the time about how employers can’t get workers – and we need to make sure that every single person that wants to work can work, and preferably work in a career or area that they’re passionate about and they want to work in. So thank you to all of you for your efforts in that space.”
Of the grant process that enables many of the initiatives that encourage women into industry, Mrs Angus said an evaluation process was now being undertaken.
“We did have a grant round – it was $9.5 million provided to 42 grantees – and it was all focused on how we can better support women… We are about to go into an evaluation phase of those so we can really get a sense of what worked well and what didn’t, and what might we do differently and what we might look to support in the future, so that is a really exciting thing for us – to actually come back and see what a difference did it make to have access to that funding… The Australian Government has a really strong view that we need to work better at supporting women so there is gender equity – so it’s about making sure women have equal opportunities – but also looking at what we need to do at a system level to try and support that.
“Some of that is about bringing TAFE back into the heart of the system and ensuring that TAFEs are providing the best quality education and access that we can, but also supporting good quality training providers and RTOs, wherever they are, to continue doing the work they are doing.”
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (June 2023 edition).