Women are vital to opening up new opportunities | Michele Bardy

South Australia has to make clever choices if it really wants to capitalise on the success of companies like Santos, writes Michele Bardy.

During the past decade South Australia has transformed to become a state of opportunity.

New industries based here, and existing industries like Santos, have significantly increased in size. Now we’ve got these, we need to ensure we’ve got the smarts to capitalise and grow.

A strong and concerted focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects has never been more important, particularly for our young people.

By driving participation in STEM, we will grow the brightest minds and foster the talent pipeline required.

Importantly, we need to drive further participation of women.

While women’s participation in STEM has improved since I was studying chemical engineering, there’s still a long way to go.

Michele Bardy, Santos vice president midstream production operations Picture: Supplied

Women constitute just 16 per cent of Australian engineering graduates – and only 13 per cent of the engineering workforce.

Attracting more women is critical for the energy transition and changing needs of the future workforce.

Now is the time for the sector to be explaining the opportunities for women interested in engineering because the skills required will be more diverse than what we’ve seen in the past. Understanding the value of diverse skills is one way to encourage female participation in the field.

Another requires a dismantling of the cultural perception that engineering is a profession for men.

It’s for this reason that early intervention is likely the most effective way of introducing females to engineering.

Engaging children, particularly girls, in science, maths, and problem solving through real-world applications makes it less of a foreign concept for students.

If we want girls to aspire to be engineers, or rocket scientists, they first need to see and believe they have what it takes.

We need to ensure young females are aware of the breadth of exciting career opportunities available as an engineer working for companies such as Santos.

This change is starting to show, with our female participation rate increasing to 36 per cent last year in Australian office-based locations.

We are moving the dial.

Now is the time to do more. The more we encourage participation now, the better the outcome for our state.

Santos is contributing more than $400,000 in Australian communities where we operate to support STEM programs for school students.

Almost 8000 students are expected to be engaged in those initiatives this year.

As a state, opening up and encouraging STEM is our pathway to building a more prosperous and bigger, better future for SA.

Michele Bardy is Santos midstream production operations vice president