The Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) has held several special events to give its women members the chance to showcase their hands-on equipment skills.
VICSES said the annual Women in Rescue events conducted last weekend gave the Service’s women volunteers a chance to display their training in casualty handling, battery lighting, and road rescue techniques, including work on a static, resting car, and the stabilisation of a rolled vehicle.
“The annual displays, pioneered by volunteers at the Sunbury unit, are now a much broader opportunity to see the capable, confident skills of female members in Victoria,” VICSES said.
“A primary motivation behind VICSES ‘Women in Rescue’ events has been help to address the Agency’s gender balance,” it said.
VICSES said the gender balance was being addressed through building women’s confidence in all roles associated with a rescue; increasing familiarity with rescue tools through more ‘hands on tools’ time; providing a positive, welcoming and challenging learning environment; and expanding leadership capacity and networking opportunities of women in emergency services.
Deputy Chief Officer with VICSES, Alistair Drayton said he was looking forward to seeing more women members rise through the ranks.
“It is brilliant to see our female VICSES leaders continue to showcase their skills through the ‘women in rescue’ event,” Drayton said.
“As an Agency, VICSES is committed to being an inclusive organisation,” he said.
Mr Drayton said it was critical that VICSES reflected the communities it served, and built confidence and leadership skills among its women in orange.
