Andrea Johnson
Chairperson, WITS
We must encourage women at all stages of their STEM career to come together and build their network.
To celebrate our 30th anniversary, WITS organised an ambitious eight week programme featuring female leaders from all aspects of STEM careers. Showcasing the incredible women in senior roles, the series gave our members the opportunity to learn about the opportunities and challenges faced by the panels.
Each week reflected a different area of interest for our members and included conversations on taking your place at the table and leveraging your network. Each panel also recognised that despite the huge strides we’ve taken towards a more balanced STEM workplace, there is still a significant amount of work to be done.
Building your network
We have placed developing networks at the heart of our success. Working with third level universities across the country, COVID-19 has allowed us to support WiSTEM student groups, working with their members on career development strategies, highlighting opportunities in industry and helping them build strong relationships with their future colleagues.
The purpose of the event is to spotlight initiatives that have funding to support more women into STEM careers and identify new ways of driving career and skills development.
In order to further drive engagement with this important group and building on the success of the Leadership Series that took place earlier this year, planning is now well underway for a Student Series. This will spotlight the wide variety of careers available in STEM.
Women in Technology & Science Ireland are working with the Department for Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science (DFHERIS) on an initiative, called ‘Her STEM Skills: An Expert Think-In for Action’, to bring together a select group of academic and industry stakeholders with a national and international STEM reach.
The purpose of the event is to spotlight initiatives that have funding to support more women into STEM careers and identify new ways of driving career and skills development. The focus of the think-in is to develop new collaborations and partnerships, advancing existing initiatives and ideation around some future opportunities. This is an action focused session that will allow senior decision makers advance this important agenda.
The first of these sessions will take place later this month and will be attended by senior decision makers.