Campaign to get more female students into engineering

Female engineers are to visit Wiltshire secondary schools to encourage students to consider a career in engineering whatever their gender.

The visits are being arranged to coincide with National Women in Engineering Day – Tuesday, 23 June – which aims to raise the profile and achievements of women in engineering.

The majority of Wiltshire’s priority sectors, including advanced manufacturing, agriculture/land-based, defence industries, life sciences and low carbon, are facing urgent Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) skill shortages.

Manufacturing industries are facing an increasing challenge to maintain a skilled workforce as experienced engineers retire.

In addition to this, almost half the agriculture/land-based workforce is expected to retire by 2020, while the defence, life sciences and low carbon sectors are also competing for STEM graduates with a minimum of 10 per cent more staff needed to be trained within the next 10 years.

However, a 2013 Institution of Engineering and Technology skills survey suggests only 7 per cent of the engineering workforce in the UK is female, and that the UK has the lowest percentage of female engineering professionals in Europe, while Latvia, Bulgaria and Cyprus lead with nearly 30 percent.

The Wiltshire Skills 4 Success Programme (WS4S) is working with Atkins Global, Siemens and QinetiQ and their female engineers to deliver exciting school role model visits. The programme is funded through the Wiltshire Assembly’s Action 4 Wiltshire Programme led by Wiltshire Council.

The aim of these visits is to inspire a future generation of scientists and engineers in the county, addressing particular skill shortages in STEM sectors and will run alongside STEM education experiences, a careers programme developed in partnership with Wiltshire businesses, an “employability charter” and many more initiatives and resources coordinated by the WS4S Programme.

Fleur de Rhe Philipe, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for economic development and skills, said: “This is an excellent initiative and these visits will prove extremely valuable even if only one girl decides to broaden her horizons by looking at a career in engineering or science as a result.”