STEM-Girls Challenge 2023: Ideas Competition Awards Ceremony

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Women’s Minister Susanne Raab, Vice-President of the Association of Industrialists, Sabine Herlitschka, and Minister of Labour and Economy Martin Kocher awarded a ceremony to the winners of the STEM-Girls Challenge 2023.

Around 300 participants participated in this initiative with a total of 145 submitted projects. Organized by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economic Affairs (BMAW) in collaboration with the Minister for Women and the Association of Industrialists (IV) in Palais Wertheim, the aim of the competition is to attract girls and young women to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. The STEM-Girls Challenge allowed participants to submit creative and original videos, texts and audios illustrating their ideas or showing them during experimentation and implementation of their ideas. The project was accompanied by Science Pool as a knowledge broker and pre-scientist.

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Minister for Labour and Economy Martin Kocher stressed the high relevance of STEM in the face of growing demand for skilled labour in the coming years due to demographic change and the green and digital transitions. Although there were already outstanding female role models in this field, the STEM sector was still dominated by men. The STEM-Girls Challenge therefore aims to attract girls from an early age to these subjects and to show them exciting professional opportunities in the technical field. “This is also about bringing girls closer to career opportunities in the technical field. The related skills will be highly demanded in the labour market in the coming years", said Martin Kocher.

Women’s Minister Susanne Raab welcomed the creative ideas and projects submitted by girls and young women. “It is particularly important for girls and young women to see how much potential they have and are encouraged to use this potential and the diverse ways and opportunities that the STEM world offers for them,” said Women’s Minister Susanne Raab.

Sabine Herlitschka, Vice-President of the Association of Industrialists, highlighted the need for visionary people, bold ideas and the right skills to build a sustainable future. It was therefore crucial to place more emphasis on technical and scientific training for women and girls and to show them the exciting careers in this field. “STEM know-how is today an important competitive factor for Austria’s companies that rely heavily on R & D, technology and digitalisation. Well-educated STEM talents who want to think and change in a solution-oriented way must therefore be promoted at an early stage. There are great and exciting future opportunities for girls and women,” says Sabine Herlitschka.