International Women in Engineering Day – Thales creates an optimal working environment

 The International Women in Engineering Day takes place every year on June 23rd – and this week at Thales our particular focus is on women in technical professions and especially in engineering.

“The topics of diversity and inclusion are firmly anchored in our corporate strategy and we have set up numerous initiatives to position ourselves in the best possible way in this segment,”

emphasizes Petra Mörsfelder, Diversity Manager for Thales Deutschland. “A large proportion of the workforce often consists of men, especially in companies in the high-tech sector. However, we are convinced that we are achieving the best results in the most diverse teams possible. To continue to promote this approach, we want to optimise the framework conditions for women in our company and to attract more women, especially in technical areas such as software and hardware engineering, but also in project management and technical sales.”

Our activities around the International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) started today with a network kick-off event for women in technical professions at Thales Deutschland. The event was organised by the WomenTogether working group, a network of women from all areas of the company. The group is actively involved in the topic of gender diversity and supports the recruitment, promotion and further development of women at Thales Deutschland through a variety of initiatives and actions.

The aim of the event is to expand the network for women, so we made sure that we scheduled enough time for everyone to get acquainted in the morning, giving them plenty of time to exchange experiences about the different departments and business areas.

Sabine Gebhardt from the women’s network of the Association of German Engineers e.V. (VDI) provided several exciting ideas from an external perspective. In her keynote speech “My life in the technical profession – a woman among men”, she reported on her many years of experience as a project manager in a male-dominated environment, encouraging a joint exchange of information and ideas. The focus then switched to the joint further development of our company, with questions like, “Which offers support women in their personal development? How can the working environment in the technical field be further improved for women? How can we increase employer attractiveness in the technical fields, thereby winning new colleagues for Thales? And what challenges do women currently face?”

These and similar questions were tackled in a working group and the results are now providing important input for further measures to be taken. WomenTogether colleagues will work on concrete actions to ensure that women in technical professions can make the best possible use of their competences and optimally develop their skills within our company. In this way, we intend to actively shape the image of women in our business environment and make a contribution to the topic of diversity. Besides the launch of the new network, very specific approaches can now also be included in the diversity action plan of Thales Deutschland.

Start your career at Thales

We offer a range of careers for new talents who want to actively shape our business and our future.

This kicks off with dual vocational training or dual university studies at one of our locations (attention: links are in German). These dual courses combine theory and practice perfectly and lay the foundation for your exciting development in our international Group – and we’ll also be there for you after your training to help you with your individual further development.

Besides interesting internships and possibilities for creating a thesis, we also offer committed students challenging job opportunities when they have completed their studies.

We offer you more than a secure job with exciting tasks in a large growth market, because every day, we will work together to make the world a safer place.

Would you like to shape the future with us?

We look forward to receiving your application! As a global player with major international projects, one of our great strengths lies in the diverse skills of our employees. We don’t talk “equal opportunities” – we practise it by actively promoting diverse teams – and this is also a main aspect of our personnel selection. It is important to us to inspire young people to take up technical professions – and we encourage applications from everyone including of course young women at the start of their careers.

Diversity at Thales Deutschland

Thales thrives on its employees’ diversity, since it has a decisive influence on the company and its success. This is why we’ve been dealing intensively with the topic of diversity for a long time now. Providing equal professional opportunities for women and men of all nationalities and age groups and from a wide variety of backgrounds, plus of course ensuring a good work-life balance, has always been a matter of course for us. We promote diversity and the compatibility of work and private life thanks to our special programmes – and we also support our employees in balancing their family life with exciting challenges at Thales.

The Thales Group has long been intensively addressing the issue of diversity, and in particular gender diversity. This is firmly anchored in our corporate strategy and we are taking appropriate measures to attract qualified women in a targeted manner, to support them in shaping their careers in the company and to ensure equal opportunities for new jobs, career opportunities and remuneration. We also provide comprehensive offers for a good work-life balance, which of course benefits both female and male employees.

Thales Deutschland is involved in numerous local projects in addition to its Group-wide programmes and initiatives. Since October 2011, for example, we have been a signatory to the Diversity Charter, we have been a pact partner of the nationwide initiative “Komm, mach MINT” (Mathematics, Computer Science, Science and Technology) and we actively participate in activities such as the annual Girls’ Day to get girls interested in a technical profession.