More young women forging careers in engineering
The stereotype that manufacturing is a male domain is rapidly breaking down as increasing numbers of young women aspire to make a career in the industry, according to data from a trade body.
The perception that the sector is underpaid and male-dominated has changed markedly in recent years, Make UK said in its report.
Almost half of parents consider manufacturing to be a well-paying career and more than a third were happy for their daughter to go into the industry, compared to just 14 per cent five years ago.
Several companies said they had seen a huge increase in the number of girls joining as apprentices.
Warren Page of Xtrac, a Berkshire-based company that specializes in making high-end gearboxes for racing cars, said the company had seen an increase in the number of female apprenticeship applicants since the end of the pandemic. Covid.
Challenging stereotypes: Several companies said they had seen a big increase in the number of girls taking on as apprentices.
“This year, 40 percent of our trainees are women,” she said.
In Worcester, engineering group C Brandauer & Co noted that in recent years it had gone from having no apprentices to having two for every five men.
“Young women have begun to see engineering as a career that inspires them,” said CEO Rowan Crozier.
“For a long time the industry has been working hard to debunk misconceptions that it is a male-dominated, dirty and unsafe industry,” said Tony Hague, head of West Midlands-based engineering firm PP Control & Automation. , adding that half of his company’s workforce is now female.
