British Gas celebrates national women in engineering day
British Gas will be helping to promote engineering careers to girls and women during a special event the company is hosting in London this evening (23rd June) to mark National Women in Engineering Day.
National Women in Engineering Day is an annual event dedicated to raising the profile and celebrating the achievements of women in engineering, and was established by the Women’s Engineering Society.
British Gas will be hosting a panel discussion with female leaders from the world of engineering to address the role of women in engineering: the past, present and future.
The panel will comprise of Claire Miles, managing director for British Gas Homecare; Dr Arti Agarwal, professor from the School of Mathematics, Computer Science Engineering at City University; Dawn Bonfield, president of the Women’s Engineering Society and British Gas engineer and success coach Nadia Abbas. The discussion will be chaired by Dickon Ross, editor of Engineering and Technology Magazine.
British Gas revealed that in 2014, only 4% of applicants for its competitive technical and engineering apprenticeship schemes were female. This chimes with independent research the company carried out with young girls across the country, where more than 70% of girls surveyed expressed a preference for traditionally “female” stereotyped roles within their top three career choices: the beauty industry (75%), nursing (73%) and childcare (72%).
As part of its ongoing campaign to encourage more girls and women to consider engineering as a career, British Gas has pledged to increase the number of female engineers through supporting at least 50 female engineers and apprentices on careers development, and launching a new mentoring programme.
