Closing the Gender Gap

Posted on Wednesday 08 Apr 2009 and tagged with corporate.

Asked to think of engineering, the chances are that most people still picture men in greasy overalls tinkering with engines in dusty lock-ups. So there are few better places to try and dispel that myth than a Formula One factory with its well lit and ruthlessly clean work surfaces. And it’s not all about men either.  

Fifteen pupils from the all-girls Bentley Wood High School, in Stanmore, north-west London were given the chance not just to see the team make their final preparations to the cars ahead of the first race of the season in Melbourne, Australia, but to find out what being an engineer actually involves.

The UK currently suffers from a national shortage of engineers and scientists so getting more girls to consider engineering is vital.

Despite girls doing better than boys at school at subjects like science and maths, women still only make up just over a third of those who go on to study science, engineering and technology (SET) at university.  

Williams has a long history of working with schools to get more pupils interested in engineering but this particular trip, organised with the National Skills Forum, was designed to focus on how we can make training to become highly-skilled engineers and scientists, like those who work on the cars, more of an appealing choice for girls about to choose which subjects to continue studying.

The girls were given a behind the scenes factory tour and had the chance to meet and talk to some of the team’s female engineers, like Kirsty Allan, who work as part of the 500-strong team at the factory in Wantage, rural Oxfordshire.

Kirsty joined Williams F1 a year-and-a-half ago and works as a composite engineer, helping produce the cars incredibly strong but light carbon-fibre bodies. “I think that women have a distorted view of engineering,” she said.

 “When someone says engineering to a 15-year-old girl, they immediately think grease, being under a car – what you would call a mechanic – and that’s not what it is at all. Being an engineer is basically being an inventor.”

As part of its report into Closing the Gender Skills Gap, the National Skills Forum talked to businesses and policymakers about what can be done to get more women interested in choosing careers in science and engineering. The report calls for an improved schools careers service, with a full-time careers officer in every school.

 Katherine Chapman, from the National Skills Forum, said: “We know that the UK is missing out on billions of pounds through the skills shortages in science, and there are still so few women and girls going into these sectors. Careers advice is so important because this is all about changing people’s perceptions.”

Fifteen-year-old Shriyam from Bentley Wood said: “These days, all the girls are encouraged to go into beauty therapy or hairdressing and I think we do need to be encouraged to go into science.”

Another science pupil Hajin agreed saying, “Show them places like this and tell them it’s not all about men and grease.”

Commenting on the trip, Alex Burns, Chief Operating Officer at Williams F1, commented, “We do a lot of work promoting students into engineering as we are well aware of the skills shortage within the discipline so this project, to encourage more females into engineering roles, is particularly interesting for us. Traditionally, women have filled more marketing and media-based roles within the business but we have seen a considerable increase in the number of females applying for engineering positions in recent years. Anything we can do to encourage those numbers we do.”

For more information, visit www.policyconnect.org.uk/skills/nsfapsg  

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