Announcement
UN Women and ESO start training programme for Chile-based women to coat astronomical mirrors
1 December 2021
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has partnered with UN Women to train seven Chile-based women in key astronomical technical skills, which will allow them to expand their job opportunities and gain skills to work in top astronomical observatories under the Second Chance programme (Tu Oportunidad) in Chile.
This programme, a UN Women initiative, is being implemented at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in the Northern Chile’s Antofagasta Region in collaboration with ESO. It aims to prepare a group of women, six from the city of Antofagasta and one from Viña del Mar, to expand their knowledge and improve their job opportunities and technical skills through astronomy.
The training programme is provided under the framework of the agreement between ESO and UN Women signed in 2020, and will give the women technical training in coating techniques for telescopes that are used in professional astronomical observatories.
The coating of large telescopes, a process that provides a new reflective layer to a mirror, is a complex and important process done at an astronomical observatory. It requires the coordination of tens of people with a variety of skills, with trainees acquiring knowledge of maths, physics, coating technology, handling of industrial chemicals, operation of cranes, and skills to operate in laboratories and clean areas.
The Tu Oportunidad programme identified seven women with an interest in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) with full high school education and basic knowledge of maths and physics. During the coming weeks, the group will be conducting their training programme with regular trips to ESO’s Paranal Observatory.
“For UN Women, generating synergies between public and private actors and organisations from civil society is fundamental. In this sense, the alliance with ESO brings us closer to science and technology, proving a real possibility of training and employability for participants in the Tu Oportunidad programme. We hope that more women become interested in these disciplines, since despite their relevance, women have been constantly underrepresented in several STEM fields,” said María Inés Salamanca, UN Women Country Programme Coordinator in Chile.
ESO’s staff, together with the Chilean EMPLEA foundation and the LINKES company, will train students through practical tutoring sessions, as well as online and face-to-face classes over a 14-week period.
Once training is completed, the students will receive a certificate to help open job opportunities for them, especially in or around large astronomical observatories, in addition to other industries in the region that require technicians with these specific skills.
“Decentralisation with a gender-based approach allows a more equitable distribution of knowledge development in the Antofagasta Region. If this is developed specifically in STEM areas, it helps integrate women from Antofagasta into a traditionally male-dominated job market” said Bárbara Núñez, ESO Regional Relations Officer, during a visit of the group to the observatory.
In the future, the women participating in Tu Oportunidad could carry out the coating of unique mirrors such as those on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, each 8.2 meters in diameter, or the 798 segments that make the 39-metre mirror of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, which is currently under construction in the Antofagasta region, and will be the world’s biggest optical telescope when it sees its first light in 2027.
Tu Oportunidad Programme
UN Women’s Tu Oportunidad programme is a worldwide initiative which is currently developed in six countries: Mexico, India, Australia, Cameroon, Jordan, and Chile, and whose objective is to economically empower women who have not completed their formal education.
This programme is implemented through an e-learning platform with courses and contents oriented towards the development of personal skills to promote employability, empower business ventures, and support taking of free examinations to complete high school education.
Edit (correction, 9 February 2022): All participants in the training programme live in Chile but some are originally from other South American countries. As such, we have changed the text to clarify the participants are Chile-based rather than Chilean.
Links
Contacts
Francisco Rodríguez
ESO Chile Press Officer
Santiago, Chile
Tel: +56 2 24633151
Email: francisco.rodriguez@eso.org
Fanny Peralta
UN Women
Santiago, Chile
Email: fanny.peralta@unwomen.org
Fernanda Ulloa
UN Women
Santiago, Chile
Tel: +56 9 6208 9947
Email: Fernanda@corpo.cl
About the Announcement
| Id: | annlang21004-es-cl |
Images
Our use of Cookies
We use cookies that are essential for accessing our websites and using our services. We also use cookies to analyse, measure and improve our websites’ performance, to enable content sharing via social media and to display media content hosted on third-party platforms.
ESO Cookies Policy
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy. It carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities for astronomy.
This Cookies Policy is intended to provide clarity by outlining the cookies used on the ESO public websites, their functions, the options you have for controlling them, and the ways you can contact us for additional details.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on your device by websites you visit. They serve various purposes, such as remembering login credentials and preferences and enhance your browsing experience.
Categories of cookies we use
Essential cookies (always active): These cookies are strictly necessary for the proper functioning of our website. Without these cookies, the website cannot operate correctly, and certain services, such as logging in or accessing secure areas, may not be available; because they are essential for the website’s operation, they cannot be disabled.
Functional Cookies: These cookies enhance your browsing experience by enabling additional features and personalization, such as remembering your preferences and settings. While not strictly necessary for the website to function, they improve usability and convenience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent.
Analytics cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors interact with our website, such as which pages are visited most often and how users navigate the site. This data helps us improve website performance, optimize content, and enhance the user experience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent. We use the following analytics cookies.
Matomo Cookies:
This website uses Matomo (formerly Piwik), an open source software which enables the statistical analysis of website visits. Matomo uses cookies (text files) which are saved on your computer and which allow us to analyze how you use our website. The website user information generated by the cookies will only be saved on the servers of our IT Department. We use this information to analyze www.eso.org visits and to prepare reports on website activities. These data will not be disclosed to third parties.
On behalf of ESO, Matomo will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
Matomo cookies settings:
Additional Third-party cookies on ESO websites: some of our pages display content from external providers, e.g. YouTube.
Such third-party services are outside of ESO control and may, at any time, change their terms of service, use of cookies, etc.
YouTube: Some videos on the ESO website are embedded from ESO’s official YouTube channel. We have enabled YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode, meaning that no cookies are set unless the user actively clicks on the video to play it. Additionally, in this mode, YouTube does not store any personally identifiable cookie data for embedded video playbacks. For more details, please refer to YouTube’s embedding videos information page.
Cookies can also be classified based on the following elements.
Regarding the domain, there are:
- First-party cookies, set by the website you are currently visiting. They are stored by the same domain that you are browsing and are used to enhance your experience on that site;
- Third-party cookies, set by a domain other than the one you are currently visiting.
As for their duration, cookies can be:
- Browser-session cookies, which are deleted when the user closes the browser;
- Stored cookies, which stay on the user's device for a predetermined period of time.
How to manage cookies
Cookie settings: You can modify your cookie choices for the ESO webpages at any time by clicking on the link Cookie settings at the bottom of any page.
In your browser: If you wish to delete cookies or instruct your browser to delete or block cookies by default, please visit the help pages of your browser:
Please be aware that if you delete or decline cookies, certain functionalities of our website may be not be available and your browsing experience may be affected.
You can set most browsers to prevent any cookies being placed on your device, but you may then have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site/page. And some services and functionalities may not work properly at all (e.g. profile logging-in, shop check out).
Updates to the ESO Cookies Policy
The ESO Cookies Policy may be subject to future updates, which will be made available on this page.
Additional information
For any queries related to cookies, please contact: pdprATesoDOTorg.
As ESO public webpages are managed by our Department of Communication, your questions will be dealt with the support of the said Department.