Eighty girls in Year 7 recently attended a 鈥楪irls in Technology鈥� one-day conference at 澳门六合彩开奖现场直播, aimed at encouraging more girls to consider technology as a viable career option.
The students, including 65 girls from 澳门六合彩开奖现场直播 and 15 from Glasshouse Christian College, learned from guest speakers and participated in workshops.
Guest speakers at the Girls in Technology conference included representatives from the Queensland Apple Education team and Flinders alumni (Class of 2011) Taylah Hasaballah who is a Product Manager at Google Australia and recognised as one of Australia鈥檚 top entrepreneurs in the 鈥�30 under 30鈥� category by Anthill online entrepreneur community.
Head of Middle School Anita Gibson said the conference was an opportunity for students to expand their ideas of what is possible for their future career paths.
鈥淲e have invited guest speakers to share their practical experiences of working in new technology careers so that our students can appreciate the many opportunities available to them beyond graduation,鈥� Anita said.
鈥淲e want our students to keep an open mind and consider how they can embrace the STEM subjects and extension opportunities at Flinders to prepare for careers of the future.鈥�
The Girls in Tech conference at the College is timely in the wake of recent reports that girls are already chronically underrepresented in the technology sector.
The 2019 report, 鈥榃omen in STEM Decadal Plan鈥� by the Australian Academy of Science, revealed that girls in Australia were the least likely out of all Asia-Pacific countries to undertake STEM subjects in school: just 27 per cent did so, compared with 76 per cent in China and 69 per cent in India.
In her presentation, Taylah Hasaballah spoke to the students about the changing nature of careers and how she uses her entrepreneurial and design thinking skills to excel in her technology role.
Students enjoyed hearing how Taylah built a successful online fashion start-up at age 17 and has since launched a platform to encourage more girls to explore technology careers.
Taylah's presentation was also attended by 70 Year 7 boys at 澳门六合彩开奖现场直播.
Samantha Cacciola, Information Systems Manager at Flinders, said the conference highlighted that technology is not all about programming and gaming.
鈥淪tudents learned that there is a creative design process which can be used to pursue any passion,鈥� Samantha said.
鈥淚t has shown the girls how accessible, inclusive and fun technology can be, and also given them the opportunity to develop their teamwork, communication and presentation skills.鈥�
Read more about learning at Flinders.
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