Female school pupils attend engineering career classes

The company invited female students aged between 11 and 13 years old to attend free interactive education sessions that enabled pupils to learn about the variety of interesting careers they can pursue within engineering and roles specifically available at Yorkshire Water.

The event coincided with ‘National Women in Engineering Day’ which was arranged by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to celebrate its 95th anniversary and highlight the shortage of women within the industry. As little as 10 per cent of the UK engineering workforce consists of women, which is the lowest in Europe.

Caroline Metcalfe, Learning and Development Manager at Yorkshire Water, said: "We really want to encourage girls in primary school and Year 7 of upper school to consider a career in engineering. The sessions will be very interactive and the pupils will be able to question our female employees who work in operational roles, our graduates and apprentices about their experiences.”

She added: ”As an added bonus the pupils will receive the very popular guided tour of Esholt Water Treatment Works where they will discover how we deal with what goes down the toilet! It’s a great way for the girls to see our waste water operations in action."

Miss Duane, a Year 6 teacher at Princeville Primary School, said: “Our pupils have really enjoyed this day out and have learned a lot about the range of engineering careers available that include science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills. Having the chance to hear from existing female engineers was really useful and the interactive activities, including understanding how drones work and how to make a water gauge from an empty drinks bottle, were really interesting.”

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