Women in Engineering and IT Scholarships

00:03

Hi everybody! My name is Eva Cheng

00:06

and I'm the Deputy Director of

00:08

the UTS Women in Engineering and IT program.

00:11

So thanks for joining me today,

00:12

we will talk a bit more about

00:13

the scholarship opportunities that are

00:15

available for women studying

00:16

engineering and IT with us.

00:18

So what are the different types of

00:20

scholarships that you can apply for?

00:22

What is the application

00:23

and interview process?

00:24

And some tips and tricks, and advice

00:26

on this application process.

00:28

So why women in engineering

00:29

and IT? Well our program

00:31

has a long history and we're here because we

00:33

want to enable students

00:35

to be able to study what they'd

00:36

like to be able to study,

00:37

and the careers they'd like to

00:38

pursue without having gender as a barrier.

00:42

Why does this matter? It's because

00:44

engineers and IT professionals

00:46

design products, solutions and

00:47

services for the greater community.

00:49

And if you don't have a

00:50

diverse voice of the people

00:52

in the community embedded into the designs,

00:54

then we're not going to be able to have

00:55

the impact and to benefit

00:57

those who are going to

00:58

be using these technologies.

01:00

So our program has

01:02

a lot of different initiatives.

01:03

We reach out to early primary school to

01:06

help build the confidence

01:07

of girls interested in science,

01:08

technology, engineering, and maths,

01:10

and working with teachers and

01:11

parents as well, including in the classroom.

01:14

We also continue reaching out into

01:16

high school to share

01:17

what are the career opportunities,

01:19

study opportunities in engineering

01:20

and IT. And what are

01:21

those emerging technologies that

01:23

you could have an impact with,

01:24

including drones, cybersecurity and

01:26

perhaps civil engineering,

01:27

building safer structures.

01:28

And through all of these outreach programs,

01:30

our current students will join us and

01:32

also industry professionals to

01:33

share what it is that

01:34

they do in the workplace.

01:36

What might a career look like?

01:37

And between high school

01:39

and university, of course

01:40

we have scholarship programs

01:42

to support students coming in.

01:43

And once you join us at UTS,

01:45

we have a big community

01:47

that you can jump into from day one.

01:49

And within this community we have a lot of

01:51

different social events

01:52

and also professional networking.

01:54

And we also have a mentoring program

01:56

with industry, where students will be

01:57

paired with an industry mentor

01:59

for one year to get

02:00

some advice and guidance on what does

02:02

a career journey look like

02:03

or what could it look like?

02:04

How could your studies get you to

02:06

where you would like to be? What subjects,

02:08

internships would be most beneficial,

02:09

what workplaces might work for you.

02:13

And then community! Underlying everything

02:15

that we do is a strong community.

02:17

Finding people like you, studying with you,

02:19

and who could be your future network as

02:21

you emerge as a

02:22

professional from your degree program.

02:25

So the scholarships that I'll talk

02:27

about today include

02:28

the Women in Engineering

02:29

Cooperative Scholarship.

02:30

So this is open to

02:31

all engineering degree programs.

02:33

Then we have the Bachelor of

02:34

IT Cooperative Scholarship,

02:35

specific to the Bachelor of IT program.

02:38

And then we have the Faculty Women in

02:40

Engineering and IT scholarship.

02:41

This is open to all degree programs

02:43

in engineering and IT,

02:44

including double degrees.

02:47

So the Women in Engineering

02:49

Cooperative Scholarship is

02:50

valued at $66 000 over four years.

02:53

And it also includes three internships

02:56

throughout your degree program.

02:57

And this internship

02:57

component is embedded within

02:59

the Diploma of Professional

03:01

Engineering Practice.

03:02

So what this looks like in

03:04

your five-year degree program is

03:06

that you'll have

03:06

your first industry internship

03:08

at the end of first year.

03:09

So getting that real-world

03:10

experience early on,

03:11

that's a three month internship

03:13

to get you started.

03:14

And then you will

03:15

have two six-month internships

03:17

in second, and fourth year.

03:18

And these internships will be with

03:20

different industry partners so

03:22

that you get that

03:22

breadth of experience

03:24

across different industries.

03:26

So who might be the industry partners?

03:29

These are some sponsors from the 2020 cohort,

03:32

and you'll see that there are a number of

03:33

different companies across civil,

03:36

electrical, mechanical,

03:37

software, and data engineering.

03:40

So the second co-operative scholarship that we have

03:42

is the Bachelor of Information Technology.

03:44

And this is a three-year scholarship that is

03:47

$49 500 in financial support.

03:50

And it includes two 6-month industry placements.

03:53

So this degree program is very much

03:55

the combination between business and IT.

03:57

So if that's more your interest,

03:59

please apply for this one.

04:01

Although we have multiple scholarships here,

04:03

it doesn't mean that you have to choose one!

04:04

You're most welcome

04:05

to apply to all of them

04:06

and then see how you go.

04:08

Because then you have the choice

04:09

to choose between different scholarships

04:11

if you're not quite sure which degree

04:12

program suits you just yet.

04:14

The third scholarship we have is

04:17

the Faculty scholarship for

04:18

Women in Engineering and IT.

04:20

This is a one-year scholarship with

04:21

$10 000 in financial support.

04:24

So this is open to

04:25

any degree program in the Faculty:

04:27

engineering, IT, computing science,

04:30

and also double degrees.

04:31

So if you're wanting

04:33

to study a double degree,

04:34

this is the only scholarship that's

04:35

available to you because

04:36

double degrees are not eligible

04:38

for the cooperative scholarships

04:39

because of the internship components

04:41

embedded into those degrees.

04:43

We do have a range

04:45

of other scholarships available.

04:47

So please have a look at our website,

04:49

make sure you apply for everything that is

04:51

applicable to you because

04:52

you've gotta be in it to win it!

04:54

And that doesn't mean that there aren't

04:55

scholarships for you

04:57

once you arrive at university with us,

05:00

we have scholarships

05:01

for our current students.

05:02

So make sure that you have a look as well.

05:04

You've heard a little bit

05:05

from me about the types

05:06

of scholarships available. Tanzeem, one of

05:08

our current scholars in

05:09

software engineering, will be able to

05:11

share what her experience

05:12

is like, being in the cooperative program.

05:14

Thank you so much, Eva. Hi, guys.

05:16

As mentioned, I'm currently in

05:18

my third year of studying

05:20

a Bachelor of Software Engineering

05:22

here at UTS.

05:24

So that means, looking at the diagram,

05:25

I've completed my first

05:27

second industry placement

05:29

so in my first year of university I, for the summer,

05:32

I interned at a company

05:34

called Wisetech Global,

05:35

so I was a junior developer

05:37

there and I stayed on with

05:39

the company to work part-time throughout

05:41

my second year until my second semester.

05:43

So then I moved to another company

05:45

called Cuscal, and

05:46

I was interning with them for six months.

05:48

And honestly,

05:50

the best part of this scholarship,

05:51

it's how much experience you get

05:53

exposed to the real-world, like moving,

05:56

comparing myself and all this

05:58

industry experience I have to

06:00

my friends that perhaps

06:01

don't get exposed to that.

06:02

I know that I've picked up on

06:03

a lot of soft skills,

06:05

a lot of hard skills,

06:06

and it's just challenged me in

06:09

so many different ways and I know

06:10

that I'm ready for the future.

06:12

And it's also showing me what I like and

06:14

what I don't like. Even though it's my third,

06:16

year of studying this,

06:19

I've gone through so many roles

06:21

and I've worked in so many teams that

06:23

I've been able to understand

06:25

myself and where I see

06:26

myself going in the future a bit more.

06:28

Something that I thought I knew back in Year 12

06:30

when I was choosing this degree,

06:32

choosing after my ATAR came up,

06:34

deciding what university I

06:35

wanted to go through.

06:36

So the main thing I wanted to highlight was

06:40

I actually applied for both the Bachelor

06:41

of IT and the Bachelor of Engineering.

06:43

And I accepted my BIT offer first.

06:46

And the reason I did so was because, you know,

06:49

I didn't actually have that much knowledge

06:51

on what the course was,

06:52

what I would be getting out of it.

06:54

And after I accepted

06:56

my BIT course, I always knew

06:58

I wanted to be someone

07:00

technical and challenge myself technically,

07:02

I really loved maths, and I was

07:04

always more drawn to the engineering aspect.

07:06

So I decided to accept my second offer,

07:09

which was the co-operative engineering offer.

07:12

Sometimes you think in Year 12,

07:14

you know exactly what

07:15

you want to do, and you know

07:16

your ATAR, and your

07:18

HSC subjects reflect that.

07:20

And you think that, you know, you're

07:21

working towards a single goal,

07:22

but it's really important

07:24

as students, for you that you need

07:25

to keep your options open

07:27

because you don't really know

07:28

what it's going to bring at

07:29

the end of the day or

07:30

what you're going to do,

07:31

or how you're going to,

07:33

how you're going to come to a situation,

07:35

you know, and it's fine if you like,

07:37

think you're gonna be working towards

07:39

a specific degree and

07:40

then in the last moment you're like,

07:42

no, that's actually not what I want to do.

07:44

I want to do this! So my advice

07:45

to you as students, is if you're in

07:47

Year 11, Year 12, Year 8, Year 9,

07:50

is just to keep your options open.

07:51

And the reason why I decided to do

07:53

technology and something in

07:55

IT was because it was always,

07:57

I was always really

07:59

interested about what's new,

08:00

how can we make things better?

08:02

How can we change some

08:03

of the practices that we have now?

08:05

And if you look at our world

08:07

right now a lot of the things are

08:08

actually underpinned

08:10

by technology and without technology,

08:12

I don't know how we'd be

08:13

able to do any of this.

08:14

Like if someone was to tell you

08:17

back when I chose

08:18

my degree, you know, in three years time,

08:20

everything will, you won't

08:21

be able to see anyone.

08:22

Everything will have to be online.

08:24

You know, you wouldn't expect that.

08:26

And I think it's been really amazing to see

08:28

that technology has transformed so

08:30

many of the workplaces.

08:32

And I've been working remotely

08:34

for about four months now and we, they

08:37

just announced that we're going to be working

08:39

remotely for the rest of the year so

08:41

it's really good to be part of

08:43

that change to see that, you know,

08:44

what you're learning at university,

08:46

what you're learning at work is

08:47

implemented in the real world.

08:49

And that's personally why I got into

08:51

engineering and IT because

08:54

I want to challenge myself.

08:55

I want to make things happen and compared

08:59

to other people without, you know,

09:01

are more focused on business and IT.

09:04

So my second advice to you would

09:06

be engineering is for like,

09:09

it's more practical, I would say.

09:11

And even though you think that, you know,

09:13

you're not good at maths or, you know,

09:15

engineering requires a lot of maths,

09:17

actually at UTS, we're really fortunate because

09:18

the way that the course is

09:20

structured is, there's practical experience.

09:23

You've got two mathematics subjects and you've

09:25

got a lot of help in those as well.

09:27

Like, even though I did

09:29

do 3-unit maths, I,

09:30

by the time that I did the math subjects at

09:33

university, I actually

09:34

remembered nothing, because you know,

09:35

you go on a three month break after HSC (Year 12),

09:38

everything's new at uni,

09:39

everything's really exciting.

09:40

So I wouldn't stress too much about

09:42

the actual subjects, there's a lot

09:44

of help available with this. You know,

09:46

UTS has peer support

09:48

and they have help groups as well.

09:50

So some subjects have extra help,

09:52

apart from your tutors and lecturers.

09:54

Everyone's really friendly here.

09:55

There's, you know, if you come

09:57

in through one of our programs,

09:59

the WiEIT and the co-operative

10:01

programs, there's a whole cohort of people.

10:03

A lot of my friends are

10:04

from those programs and we had

10:06

like a really nice community

10:07

and I really miss being

10:09

on-campus but I know being online as well

10:12

hasn't made a difference because we're

10:13

still having these virtual catch-ups.

10:15

So regardless of what

10:16

the situation is next year or how it's like,

10:19

you need to do what you're

10:20

passionate about and you need

10:21

to do something that you're

10:22

going to enjoy.

10:23

And, don't let any

10:25

of these preconceived notions

10:26

hold you back saying, you know,

10:27

engineering requires a lot of maths,

10:29

I need to be a certain stereotype,

10:31

I need to be

10:32

a certain gender in order to do this.

10:34

It's, you know, none of that is how we

10:38

function at UTS and it's

10:40

so open and after like,

10:42

oh, I actually didn't

10:43

consider coming to UTS at all.

10:45

My first preference was UNSW.

10:47

And when I got

10:49

my ATAR, when I got everything,

10:50

I was initially going

10:52

to accept my UNSW offer.

10:54

But, you know, something inside me just said,

10:55

you know, we're growing,

10:56

we're moving really rapidly,

10:58

we're changing, and that's something I

10:59

like about UTS.

11:01

That's all I wanted to say.

11:03

If you have any questions

11:04

about my personal experience,

11:05

how I got here,

11:07

let me know. Thank you so much.

11:10

So what are the next steps from here?

11:12

This is the scholarship process

11:13

for the rest of the year.

11:15

All the applications will close

11:16

on the 6th of September.

11:17

So make sure that you get your

11:18

application in on time and you

11:20

can apply at any point

11:21

up until that deadline.

11:23

If you've got any questions

11:24

or you'd like more information,

11:26

please contact us or join us for Open Week

11:28

between 31st August and 5th September.

11:31

We'll have a scholarship application workshop

11:33

for the 3rd September in the evening,

11:36

and I've got more details

11:36

later in this session.

11:38

And please feel free to join us.

11:39

Then, once we've shortlisted the applications,

11:42

we will have an interview round

11:43

in the first week of October

11:45

before your exams because

11:47

we know it's a busy period.

11:48

And then we'll notify you

11:49

of the interview outcome,

11:51

whether you've been

11:51

shortlisted from that process.

11:53

And once you receive your

11:55

ATAR results on the 18th of December,

11:57

we'll give you a call to let you

11:58

know of your overall scholarship outcome.

12:01

So tips, how might

12:03

you do well, what do we want to know?

12:04

Well, we want to know about you!

12:05

So please be honest,

12:07

tell us your story,

12:08

what it is that interests you

12:09

about engineering and IT,

12:11

what would you like to study and

12:12

why, what motivates you?

12:14

You don't need to have

12:16

existing experience in engineering and IT.

12:17

What we're looking

12:18

for is interest and

12:20

experience in engineering skills

12:22

and IT skills. What does that mean?

12:24

Teamwork, it could mean design,

12:26

creative thinking, thinking outside the box.

12:28

So include any examples where you can.

12:30

Work experience matters as well.

12:33

A casual part-time job

12:34

means that you can work in

12:35

a team, and you've got time management.

12:37

This all matters.

12:39

Interview. The interviews

12:41

will be in the first week of

12:42

October and the interview

12:43

panel is very friendly. Don't worry!

12:44

It's an industry partner,

12:46

and a UTS academic.

12:48

They just want to know a little

12:49

bit more about you to

12:50

expand on what you've shared with

12:51

us in your application.

12:52

Then how we choose

12:54

the scholarships is based on

12:55

the balance of the interview

12:57

score and your ATAR.

12:59

So tips for the interview is

13:01

that you don't need to prepare.

13:03

We want you to come as

13:04

authentic you, and we want to

13:05

hear more about what you've

13:06

told us in your application.

13:08

So make sure you do review what

13:09

you've written. And we'll have

13:11

an interview preparation workshop

13:13

if you've got any questions

13:14

about the process.

13:15

But this is just an approach to

13:17

share with you to

13:18

do well in an interview,

13:19

called the STAR approach.

13:22

What happens after the interview?

13:25

We'll let you know of the outcome,

13:26

whether you've been shortlisted

13:27

from the interviews.

13:28

And then, once we

13:30

received your ATAR on 18th December,

13:32

we'll give you a call with

13:33

the overall scholarship outcome.

13:35

And there is a short turnaround time,

13:37

because the UAC preferences

13:39

deadline is the next day.

13:40

So we just need to know by

13:41

3pm on the 19th December

13:43

whether you'd like to

13:44

accept the scholarship offer, or not.

13:47

So these are the websites

13:49

to complete your application,

13:51

both for the Women in Engineering and IT,

13:52

and the Bachelor of Information Technology.

13:54

If you're not quite sure

13:57

which degree program you'd like to choose,

13:59

especially for the Women in Engineering Cooperative

14:01

Scholarship, because

14:02

you have to choose a major,

14:04

whether that is mechanical engineering,

14:06

civil, data or software,

14:08

have a look at our website.

14:09

There's a lot more information about

14:11

what's the difference between

14:12

these degree programs

14:13

What subjects might you be studying?

14:15

You can choose more than one discipline

14:17

on your application,

14:18

but we will need to allocate you

14:20

to one interview panel.

14:22

So make sure you let us know which

14:23

your strongest preference is!

14:26

I also wanted to share with you,

14:28

Adjustment Points.

14:29

So these are points that are added to

14:31

your raw ATAR to give you a Selection Rank,

14:33

which is what the UAC offers are made based on.

14:35

The maximum number of adjustment points

14:38

that you can receive is 13.

14:40

There are different opportunities from which

14:42

you can receive adjustment points.

14:43

And this means things like including

14:46

and completing the UTS

14:47

engineering and IT portfolio,

14:49

which is an online questionnaire,

14:50

where you share with us your motivation for

14:52

studying engineering and IT.

14:55

Also, if you've done well in your Year 12 results,

14:57

you can receive adjustment points.

14:58

And also if you come

15:00

from a different background,

15:01

or certain circumstances,

15:02

which are eligible for

15:04

adjustment points. At UTS,

15:07

we also recognize the importance of having

15:09

a balanced engineering and IT profession.

15:11

So all women applicants applying for 2021

15:14

will receive ten adjustment points

15:17

for any degree program,

15:18

including combined, degrees, double degrees,

15:20

in the Faculty of Engineering and IT.

15:22

So keep in contact with us!

15:24

If you've got any questions, or you'd

15:25

like more information,

15:27

for more information

15:28

about the degree programs,

15:29

please contact the Faculty - FEIT.

15:31

If you've got more information,

15:33

if you'd like more information

15:34

about the Women in Engineering and

15:35

IT program, or the Women

15:37

in Engineering and IT scholarships, please

15:38

contact us at our website: wieit.uts.edu.au

15:42

What's next?

15:45

We have our online scholarship

15:46

application workshop on

15:48

the 3rd September, in

15:49

the evening, 5 - 6pm.

15:51

So if you'd like to join us,

15:52

please register on our website.

15:54

We've also got some live Q&A

15:55

sessions during Open Week,

15:57

and we've got these multiple days.

15:58

So check out the schedule,

15:59

come and meet the team and some

16:01

of our current students!

16:02

We've also got information sessions

16:04

on the different degree programs.

16:05

If you'd like to know more

16:07

and have some questions.

16:09

So thanks very much for joining and watching.

16:12

We hope to be able to meet you

16:14

and see you on campus soon.