This diversity-focused company hopes female students can help shake up its male-dominated industry
Infrastructure maintenance services provider Broadspectrum is sponsoring scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math for female students at two Australian universities.
It recently signed agreements with Monash University and the University of Technology Sydney to include a yearly scholarship in the 2018 program.
Broadspectrum's group executive of legal and governance Angelique Nesbitt said the move highlights the company’s diversity and inclusion agenda.
“This initiative aims to support women studying in fields where they are currently underrepresented,” she said, adding that fostering a diverse and inclusive culture is critical to Broadspectrum’s performance and innovation.
“Scholarships support individual students, and contribute to our Women in Engineering and Information Technology Program (WiEIT) which aims to increase diversity in the workplace,” UTS’s Business Relationships Manager, Faculty of Engineering and IT, Maritza Messina said.
“I am delighted to welcome Broadspectrum to our scholarship program which encourages more young women to study STEM subjects and access opportunities for careers in exciting new fields.”
Nesbitt said Broadspectrum is proud ”to have increased our female participation by five per cent in the last five years, taking the female participation in our organisation five to ten per cent higher than similar industries.”
They are also increasingly looking at ways they can facilitate greater gender equality in the workforce as they continue to place a strong emphasis on hiring and retaining talented women in the organisation.
Other initiatives toward inclusive culture:
• The #SpectrumGrad program, that has a 50/50 gender mix in its intake, was recently crowned as the Best Graduate Development Program at Australian HR Awards 2017
• The sponsorship of Chief Executive Women, and the participation of our female leaders for the past three years in its annual program.
