Australia’s AI workforce ambitions are running into a familiar structural problem: access. As Amazon hosted its annual Girls’ Tech Day in Camden this week, Western Sydney University (WSU) and local government leaders warned that the region risks being locked out of the AI economy unless long-standing gaps in maths education, infrastructure, and employer participation are addressed.
According to Amazon, Girls’ Tech Day has reached more than 20,000 girls globally and 4,500 in Australia so far, with the company expecting to support over 15,000 Australian students across its broader STEM initiatives by the end of 2025.
While events like this can spark interest, WSU Associate Dean Anupama Ginige told SmartCompany the foundations for a tech and AI-literate workforce are laid far earlier, and far more unevenly, than most policymakers acknowledge.
“Maths is the backbone of any serious pathway into AI,” Ginige said.
“Real access to AI starts with strong mathematical foundations from primary school and enough confident maths teachers in every classroom.
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“Interest in STEM is sparked early, and if students don’t build confidence in maths at that stage, many doors quietly close later.”
Ginige says the barriers are not just academic. Large class sizes, teacher shortages and postcode inequality mean STEM opportunities in Western Sydney can lag behind more affluent areas.
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A careers literacy crisis meets a growing AI economy
Structural constraint is also an issue. Many local students and their families do not know what STEM skills actually lead to.
According to Amazon’s research, 32% of students studying STEM do not understand what careers those skills unlock.
This confusion intersects with an increasingly competitive job market where employers are reportedly already willing to pay at least 29% more for workers with AI capabilities.
Country Lead of Amazon Australia, Janet Menzies, told SmartCompany this represents a “massive missed opportunity”.
“Our approach is to make that link explicit,” Menzies said. “When a student can see a local academic working on world-leading projects or visit an Amazon site and understand how technology underpins every step of the operation, Western Sydney starts being seen as an opportunity.”
Amazon’s survey of 2,000 Australian businesses found that 63% of employers prioritise hiring AI-trained workers, yet 75% say they can’t find the talent they need.
This is a pressure that disproportionately affects small businesses competing with large corporates for the same skill sets.
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Amazon says it’s attempting to build a coherent pipeline from school to industry. Menzies describes Girls’ Tech Day as “one touchpoint in a much longer journey”, pointing to Amazon’s partnership with not-for-profit edtech Code for Schools. Its aim is to teach one million Australian primary and secondary students essential AI skills over the next three years.
This sits alongside the company’s global commitment to provide free AI training to two million people by 2025.
“For students in Western Sydney, we’re partnering with Western Sydney University to co-develop classroom resources that extend learning beyond a single day, so teachers have access to course materials that showcase groundbreaking work from local academics — showing students that being from Western Sydney can put you on the world stage in STEM,” Menzies said.
This is the first year Amazon has partnered with WSU to formally link Girls’ Tech Day to curriculum-aligned teaching materials. The idea is to turn a one-off inspiration event into a long-term educational pathway.
“Over the next decade, those students become apprentices, interns, graduates, employees — and small-business owners in Western Sydney who are comfortable applying those skills in their own operations,” Menzies said.
But Ginige cautions that retaining women in STEM requires more than inspiring events or early interest.
“We don’t just need more girls starting in STEM, we need more women still there ten and twenty years later,” Ginige said.
She pointed to university–industry partnerships, work-integrated learning, flexible work arrangements, affordable childcare, and structured re-entry programs as critical to preventing mid-career exits in fast-moving fields like AI.
Western Sydney has the talent, but employers and infrastructure need to catch up
Local government leaders see the same structural gaps, but through an economic lens.
Camden’s Mayor, Therese Fedeli, told SmartCompany the region’s future as a STEM corridor depends on solving Western Sydney’s long-running transport and infrastructure deficits.
“Our greatest opportunity lies in strengthening the connection between Narellann, Leppington, Western Sydney International Airport and the Bradfield City Centre,” Fedeli said.
The council is also advocating for the North-South Metro, the South-West Rail Link extension and a rapid bus service to the Western Sydney Aerotropolis.
“This is reflected in our advocacy campaign, The Time Is Now, which calls for urgent investment from the State and Federal Governments into hospitals, schools, roads and public transport in the Camden area.”
Fedeli noted that strengthening local job clusters would also reduce the long commutes many residents face, improving overall workforce participation and retention.
On this, Ginige also issued a challenge to tech employers themselves to rethink where they operate.
“Western Sydney has the talent to be an AI innovation hub, if opportunities are built where people actually live,” Ginige said.
“Tech companies can tap into a large, under-utilised pool of talent by ‘crossing the bridge’ and setting up genuine operations in Western Sydney.”
Without that shift, she warns, the region’s young, diverse workforce will continue to face barriers that have little to do with ability and everything to do with geography.
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There is also a policy dimension. While governments continue to talk up AI-driven productivity growth, spokespeople across industry and academia noted that Australia still lacks a coordinated national approach to STEM workforce development, leaving universities, councils and companies to stitch together piecemeal solutions.
One could argue that Australia’s sluggish national approach to its AI plan and regulation, including self policing and the removal of the proposed AI Advisory Body, could have a similar result.
Overall, the overt message across industry, academia and local government spokespeople was consistent. Western Sydney could become a major AI workforce engine, but only if Australia fixes the foundational barriers first.
Maths teachers. Access to university places. Transport. Employer participation. Career literacy. And long-term support for women who want to stay in the sector, not just enter it.
