Big Sister Program Launched at Joondalup Campus, Driving Momentum for Women in Electrotechnology

The Big Sister Program has now been officially launched in Western Australia on Wednesday 22 April 2026 at the College of Electrical Training’s Joondalup campus, marking a significant step forward in efforts to increase participation of women across the electrical industry.
 
The Hon. Patrick Gorman MP, Assistant Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations; The Hon. Amber-Jade Sanderson MLA, Minister for Energy and Decarbonisation; Manufacturing; Skills and TAFE; The Hon. Andrew Giles MP, Minister for Skills and Training; Tom French MP; Emily Hamilton MLA; Rob Horstman MLC; Michael Wright, National Secretary of the Electrical Trades Union; Mark Burgess, Chief Executive Officer of Energy Skills Australia; Brian Rungie, Chief Executive Officer of PEER RTO/GTO; alongside ETI CEO Carl Copeland, ETI Board Members, tradespeople, and key program stakeholders.
 
Held at the Joondalup CET campus, the launch also highlighted the strong early success of the Big Sister Program, which has already begun to demonstrate its value in supporting women apprentices entering the industry. The campus itself has become an early focal point for the initiative, with promising engagement and participation levels in its initial stages.
 
The program’s early momentum is also being supported by strong engagement at the pre-vocational level. Big Sister’s pre-apprenticeship pathways are seeing encouraging enrolment numbers, contributing to a higher rate of participation by women than traditionally seen in the sector. By creating a clearer entry point into the trade and pairing it with structured mentorship through the Big Sister Program, ETI is building a more cohesive pipeline, one that supports women from initial training through to apprenticeship and beyond.
 
The Big Sister Program is designed to provide structured mentorship, peer support, and practical guidance for women undertaking electrical apprenticeships. By connecting participants with experienced mentors and fostering a stronger sense of community within the trade, the program aims to address long-standing barriers to entry and retention.
 
For decades, representation of women in electrotechnology has remained disproportionately low, not due to a lack of capability or interest, but often due to systemic challenges, visibility gaps, and limited support networks. The Big Sister Program directly targets these issues, offering a tangible, industry-backed solution that extends beyond recruitment and into long-term career development.

ETI CEO Carl Copeland emphasised the importance of moving from intent to action.

“This program is about shifting the dial in a meaningful and measurable way, it shows a commitment to equity, to opportunity, and to the future of the Australian workforce ” Copeland says. “We’ve talked for a long time as an industry about the need for equity and inclusion in the electrical trade. The Big Sister Program is how we start doing that properly, by breaking down barriers, practically, intentionally, and sustainably, creating support structures that actually work on the ground.”

He continued, “What we’re seeing already across the organisation is incredibly encouraging. The early success of the program shows that when you provide the right environment, the right mentorship, and the right pathways, women not only enter our industry — they stay, they thrive, and they lead.”

The strong turnout at the launch reflected a growing recognition across both government and industry that increasing diversity in the trades is not simply a social objective, but an economic and workforce imperative. With demand for skilled electrical workers continuing to rise across Western Australia, broadening participation is critical to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the sector.
 
The Big Sister Program represents a practical step toward that future. It is not positioned as a symbolic initiative, but as a working model designed to scale, evolve, and deliver outcomes over time.

Wednesday’s launch was, by all measures, a clear success. More importantly, it marked the beginning of a program that is already gaining traction where it matters most — on the ground, with apprentices, in training, and within the industry itself.
 
For ETI, the message is clear: increasing participation in electrotechnology for women is not a distant goal. It is a present priority, and one that is now being actively delivered.