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The ABC’s Women in Broadcast Technology scholarship program (WiBT) has won the 2013 Women in Technology (WiT) Employer of Choice Award.
Over the past 21 years, more than 100 women have completed the WiBT scholarship program with a number of them securing ongoing employment at the ABC through the program. The scholarships have contributed to increasing the number of female Technologists at the ABC from close to zero 20 years ago, to ten percent of the ABC’s Technical Services Technologists in 2013.
Acting ABC Director Technology, Margaret Cassidy said around 80 percent of the women who have worked in Technical Services over the last 20 years found their way to the ABC through the WiBT scholarships.
“We’ve been working much more closely with the various TAFE’s and other institutions around the country and they are very appreciative and supportive of our scholarship program for attracting young women to the relevant electro-technology and other courses.”
“The diversity of thought and approach that a diverse workforce brings to every problem that we solve and challenge that we tackle helps to ensure that Technical Services and the broader Technology Division is best placed to support the increasingly complex technology used by the ABC,” she said.
Founder and Non-Executive Chairman of GBST, John Puttick, has been mentoring women in technology for the past 14 years and has been a sponsor of the WiT Employer of Choice awards for the past three years. He said the award judges were impressed by the overall equality of the ABC’s employment profile and in particular, the WiBT scholarship program.
“The awards are all about fostering equity in the technology field and we were very impressed with the size of the ABC and the level of detail it’s putting into attracting young women into careers in broadcast technology and IT.”
“The ABC’s strategies and policies to ensure equity in employment have resulted in a number of outcomes, including four out of seven female Directors of the Board, equal representation of men and women both on the ABC Advisory Council and in the ABC Executive team. In this regard the ABC is an exemplar in terms of deriving and implementing policies to deliver employment equity within the organisation,” he said.
Thanking the staff in ABC Technical Services, Margaret Cassidy said “your support of this important initiative is helping to increase the diversity of thought that we have in our technical areas. I’d also like to thank the many TAFE’s and other educational institutions for their ongoing support for the WiBT scholarships.
