300 guests met at Victoria Parks Marquee on Friday, October 11th to attend UNIQ You’s annual International Day of the Girl event.
The breakfast celebrated UNICEF’s International Day of the Girl, bringing awareness to the barriers the world’s more than 1.1 billion girls face, to reach their full potential. This year’s theme was ‘Girls’ vision for the future,’ which aligns to UNIQ You’s vision to create a careers landscape that is underpinned by equitable access to opportunity, where girls are encouraged to explore and are supported to thrive in any role and industry.
The event raised awareness and donations for UNIQ You’s Schools Scholarship Fund, which provides regional and remote schools with subsidised access to their virtual career service. This ensures geographical location is not a barrier to the career aspirations and opportunities of Australia’s high school girls.
This year, $31,805 was raised for the fund, providing 21 schools with one free year of access to UNIQ You’s service.
UNIQ You and BMD announced their national partnership. Guests heard first handed from BMD’s Executive General Manager – Constructions, Jeff Gallus about why he is such a strong supporter of the program:
“At BMD, we know that we benefit from diverse perspectives to solve the challenges of today and so that our sector can continue to benefit from new talent.
Supporting UNIQ You is about living our values and fostering a culture of inclusivity and we are excited to inspire and educate young women, helping them realise their potential in the construction industry.
Research shows us that focusing on early education and awareness helps to encourage more girls and young women to pursue careers in construction and engineering and we see it as our responsibility to shine a spotlight on what this industry is all about.”
Guests heard from UNIQ You’s CEO Val Ridley, who shared the not-for profit was growing quickly enabling more than 1,500 high school girls to have career conversations through UNIQ You’s service so far in 2024 with national expansion on the cards due to the need to speed up the change in male-dominated industries.
Adjunct Professor Sarah Pearson was the keynote speaker, she directly spoke to the high school girls in the room, as she reminded them of the endless opportunities ahead. Pearson emphatically encouraged the girls to seize future opportunities, while reminding the audience we still have a long way to go to achieve gender equality in the workplace, and encouraged everyone to make it happen faster.
A live career conversation was held between two of UNIQ You Advisors (women working for UNIQ You Industry Partners in male-dominated industries) and four high school students, two from Yeronga State High and two from Lourdes Hill College.
Darcy Modina from BMD, and Machel Tamani from Origin Energy guided the high school girls through their own career pathways and achievements from highschool to where they are today.
The audience witnessed the students engage in a meaningful conversation, and saw how misconceptions and myths about the workforce were broken down.
The breakfast was sponsored by Skedulo, Liveris Academy, Directors Australia, OACIS, ThinkZero, Appoint, Skotte Group, Heka Hoods, and Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads.
Through sponsors, donations, and table bookings, UNIQ You raised money to fund 21 schools with full access to their virtual service in 2025. The service connects high school girls in years 9 – 12 with over 70 inspiring industry Advisors drawn from male dominated industry sectors as defined by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
UNIQ You thanks everyone who joined for the breakfast, and look forward to next year’s event.
Thank you to the event sponsors
