By Mikayla Van Loon
From the humble beginnings of a pilot program in the Yarra Ranges to a national company recognising the impact Empowered Women in Trades (EWIT) is having, the program has gone leaps and bounds in just 18 months.
EWIT was recently named as one of the 35 Victorian finalists in the Telstra Best of Business Awards for 2024, something chief executive officer and founder Hacia Atherton said was “game changing”.
“[It’s] amazing for the landscape, how society is starting to shift their mindsets around women belonging in trades,” she said.
“For Telstra to see the work we’re doing as being so meaningful to become a finalist, it’s great to have such an important Australian company with incredible judges behind it really recognise that this is a really meaningful problem that Australia is experiencing.”
Nominated in the Accelerating Women category, Ms Atherton said she hopes, whether EWIT wins or not, it elevates the uptake of women in trades.
“I really hope that having this award also changes the mindset of women in Australia,” she said.
“[I hope they realise] ‘this is a career that I could be considering or I should explore or I need to get out there and find out more information’ because that’s something we see, a lot of women are like, ‘Oh, I don’t belong in that industry. I’m not going to go and explore that industry’.”
Having just completed a Masters in positive psychology, Ms Atherton said EWIT wasn’t just about giving women practical skills but about creating a better, more welcoming work environment.
“The deeper excitement is the landscape out there and the mindset out there is really starting to shift.
“Once you see mindset shift, then everything else really starts to happen at a much faster pace.
“It’s a lot harder to change hearts and minds than it is to upskill a woman to teach her how to be an electrician or a plumber.”
Ms Atherton has seen that not only locally now but across the country with EWIT now in NSW, South Australia and, soon, Queensland.
More importantly, EWIT has expanded to working in and with Victorian schools to introduce female and non-binary students to trades at an earlier age.
“We’re not just educating the students, we’re educating the career counsellors,” she said.
“Almost 100 per cent of the career counsellors we’ve gone to and who have been involved in our programs were like ‘we have no idea about fitters and turners or sheet metal workers’ and all these different opportunities that are out there for our students.
“Which is fantastic because there’s that change in perception towards trades actually being a viable career pathway.”
Ms Atherton said the program seemed to have been especially useful for disengaged young people with lots of examples where students have had an incredible transformation in attention, interest and willingness to learn hands-on skills.
“That’s the really exciting thing about expanding the programs into the school environment because so many of these young people that don’t fit into the traditional curriculum pathway of doing well in your academic studies, go to university or do well in your sport go off and have a sporting based career.
“Now there’s a pathway to do well with the hands-on trade style activities and go off and become a tradesperson.”
Seeing the success of the schools program in Victoria, Ms Atherton said she was working on growing it to each state across the country to fit within each individual education system.
Honing her skills in psychology, Ms Atherton said wellbeing was also a focus, as well as creating resources for businesses to help employ and retain women in trades.
“I really want to start scaling up the work we’re doing with organisations around their organisational well being to ensure we can retain these women that are coming in and creating environments with higher psychological safety and creating environments where all can thrive.”
The Victorian arm of the Telstra Best of Business Awards for 2024 will be held on Friday 3 November, with the winning state finalist going on to the national finals in Sydney.
