STEAMpunk Girls to ‘empower’ young women: UTS

The university says STEAMpunk Girls recognises Australia's need for graduates with cross-disciplinary skills and entrepreneurial mindsets – and will expose young women to transdisciplinary education and show them how knowledge and technology from across the STEAM areas can be used to reframe and solve problems.

Under the programme, which will be officially launched on May Day, students will engage in problem-based learning, introducing them to STEAM, entrepreneurship, and technical skills.

"Women are under-represented in leadership roles across the workforce and particularly in the STEM fields," says Monique Potts, deputy director of the UTS Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Creative Intelligence Unit.

{loadposition peter}"We aim to empower young women and give them agency to carve out their own careers. We want them to be able to imagine new possibilities and envision a future where they are working in jobs that don't exist yet."

The programme will be launched by UTS Vice-Chancellor Professor Attila Brungs and the pilot will run from May until August.

The launch event will feature a panel of three young women from Sydney high schools who were involved in the design of the programme.

Professor Brungs said UTS was “forging new directions in transdisciplinary education to prepare young people for a future with transitory careers”.

"The nature of work is fundamentally changing and universities have a critical role to play in innovation in Australia by skilling and equipping the workforce of the future.

"It is critical that policy makers, educators and industry step up to support young people to succeed in this changing environment and help maximise their entrepreneurial spirit."

STEAMpunk Girls will build on existing UTS programmes, such as the UTS:Hatchery, an extra-curricular programme that helps students develop entrepreneurial mindsets and creative and critical thinking skills.