Skip to main content

International Women in Engineering Day #INWED18

At Thales we delighted to celebrate the contribution made by women in engineering on this day of awareness, and to promote the range of engineering career opportunities across a breadth of engineering environments from applications to the depths of the oceans to the limits of space.
 

​​International Women in Engineering Day is an international awareness campaign to raise the profile of women in engineering and focuses attention on the amazing career opportunities available to girls in this exciting industry. It celebrates the outstanding achievements of women engineers throughout the world. Once again in 2018 the day is organised under UNESCO patronage.

As we mark the occasion - take a look at our commitments towards diversity and inclusion, what that means for some of our female employees, and how you can find out more about the opportunities at Thales worldwide.

Join us on social media as we mark the occasion and show how we are
#RaisingTheBar #INWED18 @thalesgroup with @INWED1919

Diversity and collaboration

Women engineers at Thales are supported in a group that embraces Diversity and Inclusion as a cornerstone of innovation, and that recognises in order to achieve a truly diverse workforce we need an array of thoughts, skills and experiences. Collaboration is a fundamental of how we work, giving you opportunities to be your best, in a workplace that supports the way you work, and empowers your continued development.

Diversity is a way of life for a global, multidisciplinary group like Thales.
We promote engagement between staff members with different backgrounds, cultures and experiences — not just to boost our image as a multicultural company, but because diversity and cohesion translate into better performance.

As well as having a strong passion for innovation and high technology, we also understand the value of good professional development opportunities, the importance of structured progression, and the opportunity to work on meaningful programmes where you can make a difference. And, as you will see below, teamwork is highly valued in our dynamic, multicultural environment.

Supporting women into scientific and technical careers

Diversity and inclusion in STEM is vital to Thales because we know that means increased cohesion which translates into better performance.

At Thales we recruit a significant proportion of our workforce from engineering schools, but in some countries the number of women attending these schools is falling. So, Thales is actively engaged in partnership with educational institutions through initiatives aimed at attracting young women to scientific and technical careers.
 
Thales companies play an active role worldwide supporting local communities and helping local and regional economies. We offer exciting projects, intelligent teams and an excellent work culture – plus are we providing increasingly flexible compensation and benefits packages that are designed to allow return to work following maternity leave.

Take a closer look at Thales

In Australia

Thales Australia's Country Engineering Director Kerry Lunney recently spoke at the Women in Engineering Leadership Summit, which took place earlier in the month.

In Kerry's words  "I presented on the topic of “Jumping from a technical role to technical leadership to executive” using my own career and examples from other technical entities. The number of questions I was asked over 30 minutes and then into the lunch break, followed by numerous LinkedIn requests, leads me to believe I generated much interest and perhaps have assisted a number of female engineers in  tackling their future".

However what resonated with me was the advice given by Nicole van Hattem, on the “5 to Thrive”, specifically in relation to looking after your own well-being in a tough workforce. This applies to everyone and I thought I would share it :

  • Ask why?
  • Put your own oxygen mask on first! (Look at what and who you surround yourself with)
  • Get Up and Move! (Females have a 94% higher risk of death caused by a lifestyle of sitting more than 6 hours daily, compared to 48% for males.  Both figures are scary!)
  • Fuel Your Success!  (We are what we eat and drink.)
  • Switch Off!

Laure Baltzinger is one of the employees that gains inspiration from Kerry.

Laure is currently Air Traffic Management Safety Authority in Melbourne, Australia, where she provides safety strategy guidance and safety governance to current and future projects. During her career, she has been involved in the management and the safety engineering work in a variety of international projects in Air Traffic Management and Aviation domains.

She has been working in Thales for the past six years, starting in Toulouse, capital of the French aviation industry and now discovering the Australian engineering community.

Thales has given Laure the opportunity to develop her engineering skills and at the same time discover new domains, new cultures and new challenges.

In Singapore

According to Dunlin Tan "The greatest job satisfaction lies in knowing you can make a difference with what you do.

Dunlin continues, "I feel privileged every day to work with some of the best talents in the industry. What makes it more fulfilling is to see the work that we do have actual impact in the real world. One of my biggest ambitions is to see a piece of our research actually become a commercial Thales product or solution.

Every day at work, we look at how we can solve a diverse range of challenges that are most important for public and private entities. This job gives me the opportunity to bring my ideas to fruition and helps me explain to my fellow engineers the value our team can bring to the company".

 

 

 

In China

6月23日,是国际女性工程师日(International Women in Engineering Day,INWED),以此来庆祝世界各地的女性工程师的杰出成就并希望提高女性在工程师领域的关注度

 

At Thales In China we celebrated the outstanding achievements of female engineers all over the world and marked the occasion with a series of discussions aimed at raising women's awareness of engineering.

In an article publised on our Wechat channel on the day, our female engineers share their experiences and discuss the choices they made as they moved from student life to the world of work.

You can read the article in full here (chinese).

In Germany

Thales in Germany have organised two events, one internally focused for employees, and another for potential candidates to find out more about the group.

Both events are designed to highlight prospects for women in engineering at a technology leader like Thales Germany, and how to prepare for either a career start - or the next step.

Advice is on hand from colleagues ready to engage with participants during panel discussion and at the subsequent "Market Place" where they shared their own  experiences . And, the recruiting team are on hand to help with getting ready for your next decisive step with the full list of current vacancies at Thales.

See  more here  and here,  also stay up to date with Thales Deutschland on Xing.

 
In USA

Thales in the USA is breaking barriers  for women in engineering. The team shares a common passion for engineering, technology, and innovation. Ready to take on the big challenges, most importantly they do it together! This week a number of our women engineers got together to raise the profile of engineering at Thales InFlyt and to celebrate how together we are #RaisingTheBar for #INWED18.

In the United Kingdom

Increasing the number of women in Thales and the engineering sector is a business priority. We heavily engage with schools to promote science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) amongst young people, assuring that engineering is an attainable career path for both males and females. This is aligned with the view that engagement needs to be applied across all disciplines, including engineering but also the range of other business functions.

Earlier in the month, Thales UK were part of the Big Rail Diversity Challenge, proving that diverse teams perform better.

And, throughout this week our female engineers have been #raisingthebar on Twitter sharing their perspectives  on the importance of diversity and inclusion.

"I am lucky enough to have been able to progress my career within Thales, whilst raising a family at the same time. I have always felt fully supported, and have been allowed the opportunity to work flexibly. This has enabled me to manage my commitments outside of work, alongside achieving my career goals and aspirations.”  Sophie Peskett, UK Head of Resourcing

See more in the video below about how Thales in the UK are a supporting Women in STEM.

 

 
In Spain

In Spain, 39% of researchers in R&D are women, vis-à-vis the 33% of the European Union. Nevertheless, Thales in Spain are committed to "No Diversity without Inclusion" and to fully supporting the new role for women in technology. Led by the HR team, with senior management fully engaged, this has led to concrete measures being out in place.

As an example of best practice in this regard, Thales España has this year signed an agreement with Madrid Polytechnic University to create the “Thales for Diversity” bursaries. These bursaries, in addition to the monetary complement they entail, will offer a company internship to female students each year. These “Thales for Diversity” bursaries include a monetary complement and an internship in the company.

As Director of Engineering, Ana Romera is a member of the Thales España Steering Committee. In a recent interview Ana talks openly about the added value that Diversity and Inclusion brings to an organisation, and about her own career at Thales España.

 

 

In Romania

Over the last ten years or so, Thales in Romania has become a major player in the Romanian rail transport industry and now operates a mainline rail Competence Centre employing 200 software engineers, including many women. In their own words:

As a women, the work part is important because it helps us reaching our full potential but what matters more are the friendly environment and the nice people. Here, you have the opportunity to state your point of view, to ask whenever you don’t understand something and receive answers to your questions - see more

 

Why should women consider a career in Thales? First of all, because we are like a big family. We enjoy working and doing things together. It’s funny, difficult enough and focused on really interesting projects - see more

 

I admit I was a bit afraid to apply to this company, given my economic profile, but now I know it was the best decision I have took and I enjoyed every single day in this company  - see more

 

 

 

 

Working at Thales

According to Paul Bowles, Global Leader in Talent Acquisition, "we are committed to giving all our employees the opportunity to be their best. We not only value diversity and teamwork but we also value you as an individual, encourage your unique perspective, and offer you the chance to share your ideas with colleagues who will both challenge and inspire you".

At Thales, we have started to take steps to ensure all opportunities are open to the widest possible range of candidates. This has started with a conversation inside the group, including a closer look at our historic situation, an award winning worldwide Diversity and Inclusion campaign, and the setting of some ambitious objectives including raising the proportion of externally recruited female employees to 40% over the next few years.

Paul continues, "this particular objective has challenged us to remove barriers that might put off some candidates from applying, including a fresh look at how we evaluate previous experience, how we can offer flexible working in some locations, and how can engage more meaningfully with candidates and other stakeholders through the application process. We recognise the value of offering an attractive range benefits to all our people, after having listened to what matters most to our employees during a recent series of worldwide focus groups. Work life balance was a key factor for many and in various parts of the world we are being better at smart and flexible working which includes the work-space, the technology we use to connect, and also when we work during the day".

Our worldwide talent acquisition team is ready to help you. If you are unsure whether your profile matches a particular job posting,  then get in touch. We are out there on social media, are ready to answer your questions, and to introduce you to others in the group. And we will seek to understand any particular challenges you might have, as well as your big ambitions for the future regardless of where you are in your career today.

Paul adds "To see what others are saying about Thales I would encourage you to look at our page on Glassdoor, or to talk to any one of our 64,000 people".