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Virgin Australia is giving almost 60 female high school students a tour of its Brisbane facilities in a bid to inspire more young girls to consider careers in aviation.
The Year 7 and 8 students from the South East Queensland region will be shown around Virgin’s HQ, maintenance hangar, and training centre including flight simulators. Dubbed the Future Aviators Program, the inaugural event was planned for 7 March but was pushed back due to Cyclone Alfred.
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“Aviation certainly faces challenges in gender diversity, however we don’t shy away from them – we’re leaning in with a determined focus, not only to inspire students to consider a career in aviation, but to actively support them on that path,” Lisa Burquest, chief people officer at Virgin Australia, said.
“It just so happens that this year’s International Women’s Day theme is Accelerate Action, so our Future Aviators program is a fitting alignment with that.
“We are committed to building awareness so that the next generation of girls have insight to opportunities and experiences that evoke an early love for aviation and fuels their career choice as they complete their schooling.”
The program comes as Virgin Australia’s gender pay gap widened to 46.2 per cent for total remuneration in 2023–24, which the carrier ascribed to a higher number of lower-paid, customer-facing employees such as flight attendants and airport staff.
According to Burquest, women are underrepresented not only as pilots but also in less visible roles like engineering.
“This is a small but important step in increasing the visibility of some lesser-known roles in aviation for students who may not know where their skills could take them, or what roles are even available to them across the industry, so we look forward to building on the program in future years,” she said.
“As well as showcasing our engineers and pilots, the program is also about promoting to students the broader roles that make up aviation, such as the specialist roles in our Integrated Operations Centre that are responsible for keeping the operation flying.
“We recognise the technical training required to become an engineer or pilot comes with years of study, so we’re opening the door to early high school students who may not yet know what career path they’ll pursue or know the pathway to get there.”
According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, women make up approximately 4 per cent of pilots and 3 per cent of engineers globally.
