Over 200 women from the engineering sector are expected to gather in Johannesburg later this year for the 9th Annual Women in Engineering Convention.

The conference, which is set to take place on 14, 15 and 16 November 2018 at the Indaba Hotel, in Fourways, Johannesburg, will look at key issues affecting women in STEM professions.

“As an industry that was previously male dominated, great strides have been made to attract girls to STEM professions and retaining them. It is of utmost importance that continuous efforts are made to ensure that the challenges faced by women in STEM are corrected,” notes Gavaza Michelle Mashimbye, Senior Project Manager at Intelligence Transfer Centre.

Challenges faced by women in STEM Professions

Some of the key challenges faced by women in STEM Professions include growing into leadership in an ever changing and fast-paced environment by staying up-to-date with engineering trends, gaining the balance between personal life and work, understanding how digitalisation has an impact on the engineering sector, looking at the importance of personal branding and, reorganising workplace structures to achieve strategic workplace flexibility.

In addition to engaging activities and competitions the conference will include among others, presentations from Elsie Pule, Eskom’s Group Executive for Human Resources who was recently conferred with the Standard Bank Public Sector Women Leader award and Onke Ngacu, a technologist at GIBB who is the first black woman to hold the position of Chairperson for the South African Institution of Civil Engineering for the Amathole (East London) region. The conference will also include an international perspective from Jody Davis who is an Aerospace Engineer at NASA.

For more information or to reister for the conference contact Mbali Mlangeni on 0113262501, e-mail bookings@intelligencetransferc.co.za or visit www.intelligencetransferc.co.za