Engineers Australia’s General Manager of Policy and Advocacy Jenny Mitchell presented on a panel at the 10th annual Victorian Women in Aviation and Aerospace Australia Summit. 

Hosted by Aviation/Aerospace Australia the summit brought together the public, private, civil and defence sectors to move the needle on gender diversity. 

Ms Mitchell presented on a panel about skills and future solutions in the aviation and aerospace industries. Having worked at the Australian Space Agency before coming to Engineers Australia Jenny has vast experience in strategic policy work in the sector. 

“You don’t need to be an astronaut to be in the space sector and you don’t need to be a pilot to be in the aviation sector, so we need to think about the skills that people bring and how that applies in an industry, not necessarily in a particular role,” Ms Mitchell said on the panel. 

She told the audience that while her qualifications and experience are in policy planning and analysis, she has worked in the space and aviation sectors because her skills are transferable and so are many other skills from marketing to finance. 

The panel also discussed flexible working options and how the sector could improve to better women’s career outcomes. 

“Yes, we talk about flexibility and options to work part time, but I’ve worked part time for the last ten years and I know you still have to do all the full-time requirements of a job, all the reporting, all of the admin,” Ms Mitchell said. 

“The things that go are those leadership and development opportunities and those chances to work on the exciting projects. So, we need to do better there to support women to progress.” 

The panel also touched on the importance of supporting women who are not only parenting, but those looking after elderly relatives, going through infertility issues or struggling with menopause. 

Ms Mitchell was joined by several experts on the panel including:  

• Melanie Buswell FIEAust, Commanding Officer Air Training and Aviation Commons System Program Office, Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group at the Royal Australian Air Force 
• Aries Calonzo, Head of Sales ANZ and Pacific at Cirium 
• Mori Hajizadeh, Industry Engagement Manager at Industry Skills Australia 
• Ben Darling (panel moderator), Senior Territory Manager ANZ at Statasys 

She was able to bring Engineers Australia’s research to light encouraging the audience to read our Women in engineering report.  

“There are some really interesting insights into the types of solutions industry can put into place to recruit and retain women, so I highly recommend looking at that piece of research,” she said. 

Engineers Australia will continue to advocate for women working across the profession to achieve a more diverse and inclusive engineering workforce in Australia.