Clontarf Academy students visit Thales West Leederville

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned
that the following story may contain images and voices of deceased persons. 
 

On Wednesday 20 October, our Thales site in West Leederville had a special visit from six students participating in the Clontarf Academy at local secondary school Gilmore College. Thales has a strong and successful partnership with the Clontarf Foundation; a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to improve the education, discipline, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men. Last week's visit to Thales showed the students how their interest in software and programming can translate into real world opportunities within the defence industry.

The day began with an introduction to Thales and highlighted the exciting places a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) can take you. This followed with a tour of the office to meet and greet various Thales teams and learn about their experiences and journey into the industry.

The most thrilling part of the day without a doubt was showcasing the Innovation Room on site, where the students could get their hands on the technology and experience live demonstrations. They particularly enjoyed the Bushmaster Dashboard demonstration using the HoloLens to view the Bushmaster in augmented reality.

To close out the visit, our local Thales hosts had a chat with the students about their takeaways from the day. With most of the students never having been in an office, our West Leederville team was keen to learn the differences in their expectations versus what they experienced on site.

Systems Engineer Taylor Odishoo was involved with the visit and says the day was a great opportunity to support the Clontarf Academy by helping young boys to improve their social skills and normalise an office environment, while also opening their eyes to the wide range of opportunities that await them after school.

The visit from the students follows a recent outing to Gilmore College in August by a group of Thales employees from our Rockingham and West Leederville sites to learn more about the positive impacts of Thales Australia's partnership with the Clontarf Foundation.

Similar visits have also been arranged between Clontarf Academy students and Thales sites located in New South Wales.

A huge thanks to our Western Australia based team members Software Solutions Program Manager Ben Hicks, Underwater Systems Software Engineering Manager Louise Capper and Head of Software Engineering John Wiese for supporting the visit.