The Catholic Education Office (CEO), Sydney has been recognised as a leader in the advancement of women in the workforce.

The CEO, Sydney was a finalist in the highly-contested annual Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) Business Achievement Awards announced in Sydney.

The CEO was recognised in the 'Outstanding Initiative and/or Result for the Advancement of Women' category for its cutting-edge program, 'Leaders for the Future,' conducted in 2005-2006.

The EOWA Business Achievement Awards recognise business leaders and non-government organisations that are at the forefront of driving change for more involvement of women in leadership.

The 'Leaders for the Future' program offered teachers under the age of 30 - 84% of whom were women - the opportunity to develop their leadership potential and to encourage them to strive for senior leadership roles in Catholic schools.

On accepting the award the Executive Director of Schools, Br Kelvin Canavan, spoke of the great honour the award is for the young women who participated in the program, four of whom attended the awards ceremony.

"The program to date has seen remarkable success, with two of the female participants being appointed to Assistant Principal positions, and more than 15% moving into Co-ordinator roles," he said.

"The program offers women the opportunity to develop leadership skills early in their careers. Women are able to define long and short-term goals, gain a realistic understanding of the challenges involved, and set about developing skills at a pace that allows for solid integration and building a range of experiences.

"Today's award is a celebration of all the women who participated in the 'Leaders for the Future' program. We are looking forward to working with some of these women to continue to develop them into strong, future leaders," Br Kelvin added.

Sheree Jarvis, the Religious Education Co-ordinator at Holy Family Primary, Menai, said the program was encouraging and extremely helpful.

"The program was brilliant and eye-opening. It was encouraging and surprising to hear that the leadership skills of guest speaker Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, also applied to my profession. As teachers we normally don't have opportunities to listen to such speakers. I have applied the skills I learnt in the program, such as Conflict Resolution, to my leadership role."

Geni Hunt, Chair of CEO, Sydney's Equal Employment Opportunity, spoke of the importance of the program and the confidence the program offers teachers.

"With a highly feminised workforce, particularly in primary schools ¬- attracting women into leadership roles is critical for us, especially if we want to impact on the number of women in senior positions in the long term."

"Self-confidence can be an issue for some women in relation to leadership. This program assists women to recognise their potential and gives them the confidence to juggle the roles of teacher and leader."

Eva Tarchichi, of St Peter Chanel Primary, Regents Park, said the program was inspiring and had improved her level of confidence.

"The program was very empowering, and I changed my ideas on how leadership was perceived. I got the message that, no matter how young I was or my gender, I am valued. I have two interviews for leadership positions coming up, and I used the Career Path book to prepare and also to develop the meta-language of leadership."             

For Further Information
Geni Hunt, Chair of CEO, Sydney's Equal Employment Opportunity, CEO, Sydney Tel: (02) 9568 8235