You can’t keep a future girl boss (locked) down

Just a few weeks ago The Academy for Enterprising Girls was running workshops in schools with hundreds of girls across the country. From regional South Australia to the bustling Gold Coast, girls from all backgrounds practised design thinking skills and devising ways to turn their ideas into real businesses. They were on their path to becoming the future CEOs or industry leaders to change our world for the better.

In the wake of the coronavirus, these face-to-face workshops - just like our normal Monday-to-Friday school days - are on hold, and yet we still need our young bright minds to keep engaged.

We know that during previous epidemics, history’s trailblazers such as Isaac Netwon and William Shakespeare also worked from home - and went on to change the world.

We hope in this uncertain point in history, that our young women will also harness their new found time at home to take the first steps to being a future CEO or innovator, and just maybe change our world for the better.

With our young people facing the most challenging economic environment since the Great Depression, demand for enterprise skills - including digital and STEM - will be higher than ever.

Fortunately we have expert-developed online resources at hand. The Academy for Enterprising Girls Online Campus was launched earlier this year to give regional and remote Australian girls the same access to the latest entrepreneurship and design thinking education that they may not have the opportunity to access in person.

The free program is delivered through the Australian Government’s Future Female Entrepreneurs Program, and supported by the Council of Small Business Organisations.

The Academy has been co-designed by girls for girls, with support from talented educators and industry professionals, to help give the girls the mindset and skills needed for future careers that haven’t been invented yet.

By encouraging more girls aged 10-18 to pursue entrepreneurship and associated STEM education (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) we can also address these alarming statistics:

• Only 22 per cent of business founders are women
• In Australia, women make up just 17 per cent of the workforce in careers related to STEM.
• Women still only make up less than 15 per cent of enrolments in engineering bachelor degrees
• Less than one in five senior researchers in Australian universities and research institutes are women.

The Academy for Enterprising Girls Online Campus includes advice from some of Australia’s leading businesswomen including Mamamia’s and Lady StartUp’s founder Mia Freedman, Future Women’s Helen McCabe, celebrated Indigenous tech entrepreneur Mikeala Jade of Indigital, and Youtube star, Georgia Productions amongst many more.

With an extensive library of high-quality how-to videos, information and interactive exercises, the Enterprising Girls Campus is also a valuable resource for teachers also managing the transition from in-classroom work to online education.

We know the task ahead is mammoth. We have a generation of children to keep engaged in education, an army of committed teachers transitioning to new ways of learning and a generation of parents and guardians attempting to manage education as well as keeping their jobs and livelihood.

We encourage you to share resources like the Academy for Enterprising Girls Online Campus with parents, students and your colleagues to ensure that `staying at home’ doesn’t become `going backwards’ for our young people.

For more information visit https://enterprisinggirls.com.au/

YouTube video about Enterprising Girls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWXPU_iZnZw&t=7s