The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has joined the Work Experience Connection Program, run by the not-for-profit Women in ICT (WIC), to offer young women and gender-diverse students in Canberra the opportunity to undertake work experience across different ICT roles.

Through the program, students will learn cybersecurity, applications delivery, information management and infrastructure, as well as explore other areas which “strongly influence what the AFP delivers”.

AFP coordinator for foundation capability, Rebecca Logue, said the AFP was committed to bringing more women into technology, adding that the chief information officer portfolio has been filled by women at above-IT industry average rates.

“While the AFP has a strong uptake of women across the field, we need young women to consider a career in ICT,” she said.

“Technology will be an enormous part of the future and we need the skills and diversity of thinking that women bring to make sure future technologies are built for everyone.”

As a part of a new program, two students will be hosted by the AFP at the end of the school term, working in the chief information officer’s portfolio.

“We can’t wait to see to give young female and gender-diverse students the opportunity to see what a dynamic IT portfolio looks like, to meet other women thriving in the IT industry, and to see first-hand how you can have an interesting and diverse career working with technology,” Logue, who refers to herself as an ‘accidental technologist’, added.

Logue said she had discovered her own knack for IT when working for an organisation that outsourced an IT project.

Since then, she has been involved in many roles within the AFP, including as an SAP test analyst, team leader of the Solution Architecture and Business Analyst team, and involvement in numerous projects to deliver new technology to the organisation.