Preparing young women for leadership roles in the Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is hosting a Defence work experience activity designed to attract future female Navy leaders.

The inaugural Women in Navy Leadership Camp is being held at HMAS Creswell, Jervis Bay, from 4-7 April, home of the Royal Australian Naval College.

Twenty-three female secondary school students from across Australia are participating in the program which is designed to contribute to Defence’s overall strategy to increase female representation.

Head - Officers’ Initial Training Faculty at the Naval College, Lieutenant Commander Jocelyn Blowfield, said the young women will learn some of the qualities and skills needed to be an officer in the Navy.

“The participants will undergo a series of team building, time management and leadership exercises that includes building their own camp site, obstacle courses, physical fitness tests, theory, drill, and survival at sea. Importantly, they will experience life at sea onboard HMAS Ballarat,” LCDR Blowfield said.

Seventeen-year-old Ashleigh Ryan, of Calvary Christian College in Townsville, hopes the camp will be a stepping stone to attending the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) and a career as a naval officer.

“I plan to train as an officer at ADFA when I leave school so I feel privileged to be able to attend the Camp. I am a Navy Cadet and I think the Camp will also give me some skills to take back to my Unit,” she said.

Sixteen-year-old Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts student, Charlie-Faye Blackstock, said she is keen to experience life as an officer.

“I plan to join the Navy as a logistics officer when I finish school,” she said.

Sixteen–year-old Dante Leydon of Canberra’s Narrabundah College said she’s hoping to follow in her father’s footsteps and join the Navy as an Electrical Engineering Officer.

Seventeen-year-old Elisa Graves from St Mary’s College in Hobart said she is also looking forward to the Camp and plans to undertake a Gap Year in the Navy and then begin training as an officer.

Participants will also get the opportunity to talk with Navy's officers, who are partway through their initial entry training, about their own experiences in the Royal Australian Navy.

Media contact
Christine Waugh - (03) 9282 6293 or 0459 817 232