In the lead up to International Women’s Day the Hon Karen Andrews MP, Assistant Minister for Science, visited young engineering students on Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus on Friday 4 March 2016.

Assistant Minister Andrews, herself a qualified engineer, is a strong advocate for making Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) a priority in schools and in particular for girls to study these subjects through to university.

“Tackling the gender imbalance in STEM is a key focus for the Government in its National Innovation and Science Agenda. There’s $48 million to inspire STEM literacy under the agenda and we’re investing an additional $13 million to inspire girls and women to take up STEM education and careers,” said Mrs Andrews.

“This will be done by highlighting female leaders and building programs and networks to support workplace gender equality and advance women in STEM.”

Pro Vice Chancellor of Griffith Sciences Professor Debra Henly said she was delighted to have the Minister’s support in calling for more women to take up careers in STEM.

“The future of work is in STEM. The National Innovation and Science Agenda will drive a new boom to generate jobs and prosperity for all and we need more women to do that.

“Griffith University is committed to producing high calibre STEM graduates and we begin that process with our Science on the Go team which works very closely with high schools across the South East Queensland encouraging more students, particularly girls, to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses.”

“At Griffith University, we also work closely with our industry partners so that our students are working on real-life projects from the word go and they have the necessary skills and experience to take advantage of the range of jobs that are evolving.”

Professor Henly is one of only a handful of women who head a Science, Engineering and Information Technology faculty in Australia.

During the campus visit Assistant Minister Andrews will also be briefed by leading Griffith researchers about a range of key research initiatives