Bridging the Gender Diversity Gap in the Tech, Space and Defence sectors

International Women's Day on March 8th provides an important opportunity to celebrate women's achievements while calling for greater equality. Equality is not a women's issue, it's a business issue. Gender equality is essential for economies and communities to thrive.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is #BreakTheBias. Individually, we're all responsible for our own thoughts and actions - all day, every day. We can break the bias in our communities, workplaces, schools, colleges and universities. And together, we can all break the bias - on International Women's Day and beyond.

However, despite progress towards a more gender-equal world, gender disparity continues to be prevalent in many sectors, including the tech industry. According to Deloitte’s 2021 ACS Australia’s Digital Pulse report, women make up only 29% of employment in technology in Australia compared to 47.5% in similar occupations in the professional, scientific, and technical (PST) services industry.

Based on current projections, it would take 66 years to achieve gender parity in these industries. However, accelerating the progress to gender parity will not only lead to significant positive social change but economic benefits also. The modelling for Deloitte’s report finds that increasing diversity in the technology workforce would grow Australia’s economy by $1.8 billion each year on average. For the employment landscape, this means an additional 5,000 jobs a year!

The Tech Council of Australia hopes to get more Australians into tech sector jobs by upskilling and reskilling workers to transition into this area. The TCA encourages more women to consider a career in tech and revealed jobs in this sector are highly paid, secure, and flexible, making it ideal for women who are seeking a career change. Furthermore, women joining the tech sector at an entry-level have a gender pay gap half that of women entering comparable industries.

One of the ways Modis is addressing the lack of gender diversity and female representation in the tech, space, and defence sectors, is by partnering with Microsoft to develop a new tech skilling program that will help candidates acquire the skills and industry recognised micro-credentials necessary to step into an entry-level data analyst role.

Commencing later this month, the program aims to support 100+ women to take their first career steps towards entry-level tech roles in space, technology, and defence.

Modis is also proud to be a part of SheDares, a free online, interactive learning experience that aims to demystify careers in technology for professional women in non-tech industries and equip them for a pivot into the sector.

SheDares is a program developed by the Dream Collective in collaboration with AWS for women seeking to change careers or returning to the workforce and women who are not currently working in the tech industry.

Together with our partners, we hope not only to engineer a smarter future, but a more gender-equal one where we will see more women shooting for the stars because the sky is no longer the limit.

Learn more about the Modis Tech Academy and Microsoft’s new skilling program here.

Tech Start – launching careers in space, defence and technology

Modis Tech Academy, in collaboration with Microsoft Australia, brings you the Tech Start program!

Tech Start will provide the connections, pathways and confidence to help women pursue a career in an exciting and growing space and defence industry. The first Tech Start program will support you to acquire the skills and micro-credentials necessary to step into an entry level data analyst role. Click the button below to learn more about the Tech Start program.

Learn more about Tech Start

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