HISTORICALLY welding has been a male dominated trade but this is changing as more women upskill and consider the industry one they can work within.
Beaudesert State High School teacher Anthony Brieschke works with teenage girls who have an interest in engineering including welding and using an angle grinder.He said his students not only showed genuine interest in trades, they were becoming highly skilled and performed tasks to a high standard.
The school’s engineering program is run out of a building within its agriculture department.
“Ten years ago I’d have maybe one or two girls across the Year 11 and Year 12 group do the program...we now have 21 percent of girls taking part,” Mr Brieschke said.
“Most are in the top percentile across all classes and there are two students who get straight A’s across all pieces of assessment.”
The students he is talking about are 16-year-old Mia Tuesley who is in Year 11 and 17-year-old Jocelyn Reilly who is in Year 12.
“Because they are high achievers they don’t make the same project as the others, they get a harder one,” he said.
Mia lives at Chinghee Creek with her mum, dad and four siblings.
She is the second youngest and the only one to show an interest in engineering.
Ask her why she decided on the subject and she says ‘it’s easy, I’m good at it, it’s fun and I didn’t want to do history’.
“Mia is excellent with building and construction as well, and furnishings too...she’s killing those classes as well,” Mr Brieschke said.
“She is doing a range of subjects to open up all the doors to see what is available for her, she is not pigeonholing herself.”
Mia said she had work experience with Beaudesert Exhausts and was looking forward to getting experience in the furnishing and construction sectors.
Jocelyn lives at Tamrookum Creek with her mum, dad and two younger siblings.
She said she’d welded alongside her father and when she got into the engineering class she discovered it was something she really enjoyed.
“I am just loving it and it’s so different to anything I’ve done at school before,” she enthused.
“I’m not really sure what I want to do or be yet, similar to Mia I am looking at all the different pathways to find out what I like.”
Both credit their teacher as having played a big part in their success.
“He is so helpful and easy to talk to, you can approach him whenever you need to...it doesn’t have to be in class either, you can email him over the holidays and the weekend too,” Jocelyn said.
“He is always ready to help,” Mia added.

WOMEN IN WELDING