As part of the Year of Women in Local Government, Indigo Training has decided to act and support this much needed and worthwhile initiative. The idea for a scholarship came about after Rum Charles, principal consultant of Indigo Training, gave a keynote address at the LG PAN conference in May 2010.
After his presentation Rum was invited to stay on to hear the next speaker, Christina Pask from Frankston City Council, talk about 2010 being the Year of Women in Local Government. As part of her speech Christina cited some statistics from the Local Government Managers Australia’s website in relation to how many women had a management role within the sector.
These are the statistics she mentioned:
- only 20 per cent of women
are represented in senior management roles - seven per cent of chief
executives or general
managers are women - women still account for
less than 30 per cent of
elected officials.
On hearing these stats Rum was truly shocked and wanted to find out why there are so few women in management roles within Local Government.
After much research and talking with many people, Rum discovered that confidence and education were two of the reasons why women were not putting themselves forward for Team Leader and Coordinator roles, let alone higher management positions.
To find out more about the scholarship and your eligibility please visit www.yowilgscholarship.com
As a training company with long established links within Local Government, Rum, with the team of Indigo Training and in conjunction with Local Government FOCUS, decided that we could act to help and support the many women who would like to progress their careers by providing a scholarship valued at $7000.
The scholarship will be awarded to a worthy recipient within Victoria to complete their Certificate IV in Frontline Management.
This nationally recognised qualification is a great first step into a management role and is a great qualification to have for those who are in a Team Leader/Coordinator position now but wish to move on to a higher management position.
This qualification not only gives a piece of paper but also goes a long way to giving women the confidence to apply for roles in their organisations.
On gaining a management position it will give them the confidence to carry out their duties in a professional and competent manner. This will have the knock on effect of showing other women inside the organisation that they too can gain qualifications and step into management.
“I would urge all reading this article to log onto the website for the Year of Women in Local Government to see what your organisation can do to support the year or to see what activities are being provided to support you in this exciting year,” Rum Charles said.
Visit lgwomen2010.org.au
