Female engineers needed to meet growing skills demands

The government has called on females to consider a career in engineering to meet the changing demands of the transport industry.

The call follows the convening of a roundtable on women in transport by the Department for Transport’s Permanent Secretary Bernadette Kelly, attended by senior female leaders in the sector. Representatives from the Royal Academy of Engineering, Ford, Heathrow Airport, Network Rail, the Women in Maritime Taskforce, and Virgin Atlantic were present.

Key points of discussion included unconscious bias, challenging perceptions, and parent policies.

The government is also celebrating the success of the Year of Engineering campaign in increasing the awareness of opportunities in engineering. The campaign delivered an estimated 5.1 million experiences of engineering for young people in 2018 – far exceeding the one million target.

Forthcoming research carried out by EngineeringUK will show that the desirability of engineering as a career among the core audience of 7 to 11 year-olds has been boosted by 35% among those aware of the government’s Year of Engineering campaign.

The government new campaign to rearch people of different backgrounds is called ‘Engineering: Take a Closer Look’.