In 2019, the Australian Government established the Women in the Aviation Industry Initiative (WAII) to partner with industry to support the aviation sector to encourage women to enter and remain in the industry as a way to address gender imbalance and alleviate skills shortages across the industry.
Since its establishment, the WAII has funded a range of projects to increase awareness of exciting aviation sector career opportunities, and has reached and inspired thousands of women and girls through direct engagement at events, workshops, careers fairs and aviation air shows.
The WAII has also supported projects to help women to stay in the sector and transform workplace culture to ensure greater inclusivity and diversity, welcoming the skills and experience of women to non-traditional roles in aviation.
Current projects funded under the WAII:
| Project name | Delivery partner | Project description |
|---|---|---|
| Raising Horizons: Creating school based non-traditional pathways in to aviation | Gunggandji Aerospace | Empowers First Nations' students aged 12–18 years from remote communities across North and Far North Queensland, including the Torres Strait, to pursue careers in the aviation industry. |
| Sky Careers Connect and Sky Careers Leadership | Civil Aviation Academy of Australasia | Leadership initiatives promote learning and job opportunities for young girls and women interested in, or already in, the aviation industry, including those from underrepresented groups in regional and remote areas. Activities upskill, empower, and support women at the early stage of their aviation journey while enhancing career advancement opportunities. |
| Leadership, Culture and Visibility | Navigating Aviation | A National General Aviation Culture Survey, informing grassroots activities that promote inclusion and help business owners in the industry to better understand how to manage, support and retain women in the aviation sector. |
| Aviators in Schools, Barriers to the Workplace, and Women in Aviation Culture surveys | Aviation/ Aerospace Australia | The Aviators in Schools project, delivered in partnership with the CSIRO, provides resources, mentor teachers, site visits, career talks and hands-on demonstrations to encourage careers in aviation, focusing on schools with students from underrepresented backgrounds. Surveys collect feedback on the changing understanding of early career engagement and focus on what drives women to leave the aviation industry. |
Completed projects
Activities successfully delivered through WAII projects in previous years include:
- forums to support emerging female leaders in the aviation industry aimed to drive long-term cultural change and increase diversity and inclusion in the aviation workforce
- the Aviation Career Explorer program, delivered by WAII Australian Chapter, to promote aviation career opportunities and cultivate interest in aviation amongst high school students
- awareness and outreach activities designed for school students to increase their knowledge of career opportunities and benefits of working in the aviation industry, delivered by the Civil Aviation Academy of Australasia
- programs targeting flight instructors to foster leadership and inclusion skills, and targeting high school students to develop their interest in STEM careers in aviation, delivered by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
- designing and leading behavioural interventions in the aviation industry to influence cultural change, delivered by ThinkPlacex Australia using nudge theory.
The strategic action plan
In September 2023, the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts released a Strategic Action Plan (the Action Plan) to guide the delivery of the Initiative to 2026, focusing on identifying opportunities around leadership and culture, visibility and awareness, collaboration and continuous improvement to positively influence the Australian aviation industry. Findings from the Barriers to the Pipeline report, alongside a Mid-Program Evaluation of the Initiative, informed the Strategic Action Plan.
Developed in close consultation with industry, the Strategic Action Plan supports long-term sustainability by addressing gender imbalance and skills shortages. It aims to build on efforts by industry to support a culture where women choose a career in aviation, and are welcomed into an inclusive and supporting workforce. To achieve this, the Action Plan will support industry to:
- increase female representation across the aviation workforce
- attract and retain more women into critical careers in aviation (e.g. engineering, airport operations and piloting)
- develop and provide resources and strategies to help women build careers in the industry and improve their economic security, and
- leverage the largely untapped pool of talented and skilled women and direct them to where they are needed within the industry.