The increase in percentage of board positions filled by women in the last decade in Australia may have substantially increased, however representation in male dominated industries is still significantly lower. This extends further for people from refugee and migrant backgrounds – but a project co-ordinated by the Centre for Multicultural Youth is striving to flip the script. ‘Seat at the Table’ (SAT) is a leadership immersion opportunity for young women from refugee and migrant backgrounds, designed to address their under-representation in formal leadership roles. Now in the second year of the project, CMY partnered with the Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania (MRCT) and the Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN) to develop, pilot and evaluate the project on a national scale. The Tasmanian Hospitality Association is no stranger to promoting women within the industry, with a dedicated Women in Leadership program, highlighting the achievements and celebrating the roles females play, now 12 months advanced. The SAT project provided a further avenue for a participant to gain working knowledge of the THA and its governance as the peak body, and was an opportunity Grazielle Marie Fetalvero jumped at. Ms Fetalvero, who is in the Seat at the Table INDUSTRY FEATURE
GRAZIELLE MARIE FETALVERO WITH SHELLEY RICHARDS
third and final year of a Bachelor of Business major in Finance and Accounting at the University of Tasmania, was born in the Philippines and moved to Australia five years ago with her mother and sister. Also a part time supervisor at Nando’s, she detailed her involvement and learnings with the SAT program, which saw her attend several THA board meetings as an observer as well as workshops featuring guest speakers. Q: How did you come across the Seat at the Table program? A: I used to be part of the Youth Advisory Group in which we help raise awareness to the problems that youth from multicultural group are facing in Tasmania. The YAG (Youth Advisory group), Migrant Resource Centre (MRC) usually sends me some opportunities that I might be interested in such as the Seat at the Table program, and that’s where I came across it. Q: What sparked your interest in participating? A: When I read the program information and how it involves leadership, corporate governance, and a little bit about finance it sparked my interest right away. The program itself is kind of related to what I am studying, and I wanted to feel how it would be like to be there as an observer experiencing the [board] meetings and hearing different discussions about the happenings in the organisation.
19 Tasmanian Hospitality Review December/January Edition
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