Today (Thursday 27 March 2014) engineering skills body Semta is to join forces with Unite the union and the TUC in Manchester at an event to showcase women in engineering.
It's part of series of initiatives being staged this week, all aimed at getting more girls into engineering and industrial management.
Among the speakers at the Mechanics Institute will be Semta's head of communications and public affairs Joanne Iceton and 21-year-old Jade Aspinall, who won the Apprentice of the Year Award and was voted Best of British engineering at the recent Semta Skills Awards.
"Just 22% of employees in the advanced manufacturing and engineering sector are women and, of those, only 9% are engineers, scientists or technologists and just 5% managers," comments Sarah Sillars OBE, chief executive of Semta.
"That is just not good enough. Half of the UK workforce is female so there is a wealth of untapped talent just waiting to be added to the skills pipeline," she asserts.
Sarah Sillars says of Jade and her fellow MBDA employee Daniella Di Stazio, who won the Higher Apprentice of the Year Award: "These two 21-year-olds are brilliant role models and ambassadors for apprenticeships and women in engineering – showing girls exactly what can be achieved".
