Submission to the Inquiry into the Factors Driving Educational Attainment

Building a diverse STEM workforce equipped with the skills to solve Australia’s most complex problems is vital to Australia’s economy, society and wellbeing. Boosting the involvement of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM education is therefore necessary to meet the 60,000-person shortage in the engineering workforce expected by 2035.

ATSE has long championed diversity and equity of access within STEM research, education, and practice. ATSE’s 2022 report Our STEM skilled future - An education roadmap for an innovative workforce, highlights diversity in STEM as a key, evidence-based pathway to improving Australia’s technology-powered, human driven potential. 

ATSE’s flagship STELR program comprises a set of high-quality, engagement-oriented learning modules aiming to bolster Australian learners’ early engagement with STEM fields. For STEM workplaces, our Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit supports the skills acquisition of under-represented Australian learners by helping Australian small businesses engage with diversity in hiring and training STEM-skilled workers. 

ATSE’s primary evidence-based approach to supporting diversity in tertiary STEM education is the Elevate: Boosting diversity in STEM program. The program awards scholarships to women and non-binary people, supporting them to study STEM degrees at university. Despite this success, ATSE will soon be forced to significantly scale back this provision of new scholarships, due to the absence of committed funding for new scholars beyond 2027.

ATSE calls for committed government funding to extend the Elevate program for additional scholars would ensure the continued operation of an evidence-based program with an exceptional track record in reducing gender-based barriers in Australian STEM education and of supporting a pipeline of women and gender-diverse learners into STEM careers.