ACS Queensland and River City Labs Diversity & Inclusion Showcase - Wrap up and Video

31 March 2021

Highlights

• ACS Queensland and River City Labs hosted a Diversity and Inclusion in Tech Showcase on March 8. Missed the event? Panellist Nicola Steel of JJP Talent Solutions provides the key highlights and you can watch the event video.
• Read the highlights and watch the video

On Monday 8 March, ACS Queensland and River City Labs hosted an International Women’s Day Panel Event about embracing diversity and inclusion.

The panel included Preferred Recruitment Partner, Nicola Steel of JJP Talent Solutions together with Linda Eng (4Impact), Dr Padma Gadiyar (Simlo.ai), Rene Chappel (BHP Digital Factory), Joanna Killalea-Walford (Datacom), Johnny Serrano (Groundprobe) with Pauline Fetaui from RCL as MC.

Women only represent 29% of the tech workforce in Australia. The panel discussed various solutions. Johnny talked about mentorship at GroundProbe. Joanna discussed programs at Datacom which encourage young girls to be more involved in tech and explore different avenues.

Rene talked about the Female Talent Factory at BHP Digital Factory. The panel also considered how to get more young people interested in tech, particularly considering the need for an additional 150,000 tech workers in Australia by 2025.

Older workers only represent 15% of the ICT workforce. A solution is to cross-train people already employed who are a good fit culturally with the ability to learn new tech skills.

Johnny talked about the work of the ACS Diversity & Inclusion Committee, and it was great to have true diversity represented on the panel. Change will only happen with male ally-ship and all parties working together shoulder to shoulder & as equals.

Watch the video of the event here