Introducing the Women in STEM Cadetships Program

Your computer has crashed and the blue screen of death is staring back at you. You call the IT department for assistance, and unsurprisingly, the voice on the other end of the line is male. How did you know? Well, it wasn’t just a lucky guess. It turns out that while women make up 47% of the workforce, they hold only 29% of roles in the technology sector. 

There are many reasons for this discrepancy, but what is clear is that this picture needs to change. 

via GIPHY

Everybody loses out and our key industries suffer when underrepresentation like this persists. 

Women and non-binary individuals should have the chance to step into some of Australia’s most in-demand professions.

The people designing and maintaining vital systems and software for our communities should ideally come from a diverse range of backgrounds to better represent the society that will use those systems and software. 

The Importance of Including Women in STEM

Having more equal representation in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) industries isn’t just something that’s nice to aspire to. It’s vital for the wellbeing of our society as a whole. 

A report from the Australian Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), Future of work: where technology and work intersect, found that when women are underrepresented in STEM, this influences the development of technology design and function, and creates a higher likelihood for biases that favour men.

Representation is not a tick box on a to-do list. It matters and has far-reaching implications. The WGEA report also found that working with ill-suited technology can negatively impact women’s productivity, safety, and health.

Taking a Seat at the Tech Industry Table

All industries, from farming to fashion, are becoming increasingly reliant on technology. The tech sector is booming, and women are being left behind.

Online employment marketplace SEEK predicts that the future need for developers will only continue to grow year on year, with a five-year projection of 27 per cent job growth for full stack, backend and frontend developers. 

Salaries for the workers in these in-demand roles have also remained attractive in these turbulent economic times, with the Government’s Jobs and Skills Australia listing the median  weekly earnings for software and applications programmers at $2,496, or roughly $130,000 per annum. Their data also predicted strong future growth for the industry, with an estimate that the workforce will grow by 10,200 programmers annually. 

Women in STEM Cadetships and Advanced Apprenticeships Program

The Women in STEM Cadetships and Advanced Apprenticeships Program is an Australian Government initiative aimed at increasing the number of STEM-qualified women in the labour force by providing funding towards education in higher education programs. 

Grants of over $16,500 are available to eligible females, including those identifying as non-binary individuals.

Interested students must register with an approved organisation, and Coder Academy is pleased to offer places within our beloved Web Development Bootcamp for our January 2025 intake. 

Applicants for the program must also currently be engaged in paid employment, and will come to an agreement with their employer before enrolling. 

Students taking part in the Women in STEM Cadetship Program at Coder Academy will study part time over the course of 2 years through evening classes to gain an accredited Higher Education Diploma of Web Development while continuing to work with their current employer. 

Coder Academy is proud to offer places to students participating in the Women in STEM program. Diversity and inclusion have always been hugely important to the Coder crew, and something we strive to champion wherever possible.

Eve Ollerenshaw leads Coder Academy’s Accreditation & Compliance division, and has been a key supporter of the implementation of the Women in STEM program at Coder Academy from the start. 

“It is somewhat frustrating that in Australia in 2024 we should need such a program as the Women in STEM,” Eve says. “But gee, I am glad that we do. This provides an opportunity to redress existing and continuing imbalances. It should be embraced.”

You can find further information on our Women in STEM page and submit an enquiry to learn more or contact us directly using the options below. 

We’ll be sharing more stories of Coder Academy’s Women in STEM in the coming weeks. So watch this space.