Frequently Asked Questions

The STEM sector is crucial to driving innovation, leading to new and better products and services, economic growth, and higher living standards. However, female STEM professionals are underrepresented in decision making and leadership positions, accounting for just 16% of the Australian STEM workforce and only 3% of STEM companies are led by women as CEO. Yet it is well recognised that companies with diverse leadership teams and boards perform better. Diversity at senior levels leads to the generation of new ideas, fosters creative solutions, decreases risk, and enhances corporate governance and group decision making. The WILD Program is focused on increasing gender diversity at senior management and board levels within the STEM sector. It aims to tackle some of the systemic barriers that have limited women’s career progression by increasing access to leadership training and skills, increasing exposure to mentors and role models, providing access to networks, building confidence and developing tools to support cultural change.

The WILD Program is designed to increase the number of STEM-qualified women serving on boards and in senior leadership positions. Ideal applicants are able to demonstrate how they are experiencing real barriers to career progression; they can articulate how their skills, experience and career trajectory will lead them to attaining a senior leadership and/or board position upon completion of the WILD Program; they demonstrate a clear alignment to the vision of the WILD Program and outline their aspirations for contributing to the STEM sector.

Applicants to the WILD Program do not need to be currently in a leadership or executive role, however they do need to demonstrate an aspiration to achieve a leadership or executive role in the short to medium term. Applicants also need to explain the barriers they are experiencing to career progression and articulate how the WILD Program will help them overcome those barriers.

We prefer applicants have post-graduate qualifications as this advanced STEM training is highly regarded and supports better decision making in senior leadership and board positions. However, we recognise that it is possible to gain equivalent skills to post-graduate training through professional and work experience, and we therefore do offer some flexibility towards this requirement if equivalent experience can be demonstrated.

While difficult to define, equivalent experience might include several years of relevant work experience or certain skills or courses that have been obtained, and these will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. You will asked to demonstrate your relevant experience equivalent to postgraduate training within your field. 

The vision of the WILD Program is to achieve gender equity in STEM leadership that will ultimately drive better decision making and improved business performance. The WILD Program is therefore targeted towards bringing STEM skills to senior leadership and board level positions within companies. We recognise that academia is a large part of the STEM sector and that gender disparity in pervasive in academia, however the WILD Program is built specifically around industry careers, is supported by businesses and other industry stakeholders and is therefore not designed to support career progression and participation in academic careers.

We estimate the WILD Program requires a commitment of six weeks full-time spread over the course of the year. Most of this (3-4 weeks) is related to completing the AICD course, which requires significant pre-reading, five days of course delivery and post-course study and exams. Time should also be put aside for arranging and participating in the board observership, attending the two-day retreat (including travel) and attending masterclasses and other events.