In a recent joint submission the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Engineers Australia, the Association of Consulting Engineers and the Australian College of Engineering Deans warned that dependence on overseas graduates could become a significant risk to Australia's future productivity.
"The lack of diversity amongst engineering students has to be recognised as a major impediment to increasing the pool of domestic graduate engineers," the submission said. "Engineering is one of the last bastions of male domination in higher education. If this isn't addressed, the sector will continue to alienate fifty per cent of its potential market.
"In 2006, women were 56 per cent of all undergraduate student commencements but just 13.4 per cent of engineering undergraduate commencements. This dropped to 12.7 per cent of engineering undergraduate commencements in 2007."
Women in Engineering is a social group from Engineers Australia designed to support more women in the engineering workplace and is currently seeking more mentors or students involved in engineering to join its ranks. Current UTS engineering students can also earn course credit for volunteering with the group.
More at UTS and the Women in Engineering homepage.
