Grants & Funding

Building Women’s Careers Program

Funded by DEWR, the Building Women’s Careers Program seeks to foster partnerships that address barriers to women’s participation in high-growth industries, offering grants up to $5 million.

Building Women’s Careers Program

Building Women's Careers Program

The Building Women's Careers (BWC) Program provides up to $5 million for partnerships to drive structural and cultural change and increase women’s participation and training in the construction, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and/or digital and technology industries.

What do you get?

The program consists of two streams:

  • Stream One - a grant of between $3 million and $5 million.
  • Stream Two - a grant of between $500,000 and $1 million.

The grant amount will cover up to 100% of eligible expenditure.

Who is this for?

Industry-based employers, registered unions, community organisations, registered charities and not-for-profits and partners with direct links to the construction, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and/or digital and technology industries.

Partnerships with other organisations are a mandatory requirement for all projects.

Overview

The BWC Program will establish partnerships to drive structural and cultural change in the construction, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and digital and technology industries and sectors.

The BWC Program seeks to sustainably address structural and cultural barriers to women’s participation in Vocational Education and Training (VET) and employment.

The intended outcomes are:

  • strong, diverse and enduring partnerships to develop and deliver innovative, scalable partnership projects to drive structural and cultural change in women’s participation in VET and the workplace
  • increased access for women to higher-paying and skilled VET-based careers in male dominated occupations as measured by:
    • the availability and use of policies and strategies to implement and embed gender equality in VET and the workplace
    • improved availability and use of employment conditions and arrangements that support people to balance work and caring responsibilities
    • reduced and removed structural and cultural barriers, (for example poor access to ‘good flexibility’ or employee-oriented flexibility, an excess of ‘bad’ flexibility or employer-oriented flexibility, gendered occupational and industry segregation, and disrespect and discrimination) that prevent women from accessing and participating in VET and the workplace
    • an increase in the recruitment, promotion and retention of women in male-dominated occupations
  • an evidence base of practical changes that can be implemented across the broader economy to reduce occupational gender segregation and increase women’s participation in VET and male-dominated industries, sectors and occupations.

The BWC Program is informed by the Employment White Paper, Working for Women, A Strategy for Gender Equality, the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce Report and extensive stakeholder consultation undertaken by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR).

Check if you can apply

You can apply if you meet the eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria are a set of rules that describe who we can consider for this grant. You can apply if you:

  • are an eligible entity (different criteria apply for Stream One and Stream Two applicants)
  • have an eligible project
  • have eligible expenditure.

The rules are in the grant opportunity guidelines.

The BWC Program is only open to applicants jointly delivering project partnerships. This means that organisations cannot apply on their own without other project partners.

Apply here