Around 3,200 women have applied to recruitment campaigns for Rio Tinto, in a bid to hire women with transferable skills and train them into the mining industry.
In Western Australia, the Transferable Pathways campaign, which launched in May 2022 attracted about 1,600 responses. This was roughly the same number received for the Women in Leadership program at Rio Tinto’s eastern Australian and New Zealand Aluminium operations in April and May.
The campaigns attracted applicants from a diverse range of industries, including defence, aviation, government, HR and education.
Rio Tinto Chief Executive Australia, Kellie Parker, said, “The response to both of these campaigns has been overwhelming and it is encouraging to see women keen to enter our industry as we work to create a more inclusive and diverse environment.
“Our recent review into workplace culture, the Everyday Respect report, showed clearly that we need to foster a more diverse and inclusive workforce, which includes increasing the number of women in our business.
“One way we are trying to do this is to better recognise leadership and work skills gained in other industries and help transfer those to our workforce.
“Traditional recruitment practices for our industry mean we are hiring women from the same talent pool.
“By opening up our operational roles to women without industry experience, but with transferable skills and talent, we not only increase representation of women in our business but also diversity across the industry as a whole.”
Successful applicants in both programs will take part in a 12-month course combining on-the-job and classroom training and will be supported through mentoring, networking, coaching and educational programs.
