As part of International Women’s Day, Microsoft welcomed students into two brand new datacentres currently being built in Sydney and Melbourne for special My Career Rules sessions focused on women in the construction industry.

ABCN member company Microsoft are building datacentres across Australia to hyperscale cloud computing and AI infrastructure, increasing Australia’s computing capacity by approximately 250 per cent, introducing a series of exciting career opportunities.

Mentors from Microsoft’s Cloud Operations and Innovations team took students from Kingswood High School and Jamison High School in Sydney and Tarneit P-9 College in Melbourne on a tour of the construction sites, answering student questions about the careers available throughout the industry and the ins and outs of working on such a large-scale, transformative project for Australia’s digital future.

Reflecting post-program, one student said they were interested in pursing a career in construction based on their experience at the datacentre: ‘Seeing how things run there and speaking to Kiera the apprentice because she told me everything about trailing and figuring out if I want to do residential or commercial [construction].’

A huge thank you to Microsoft for giving our students a peek into both construction and Australia’s digital future and providing such valuable career information for our young women.