Female engineering record to mark new college year
9 Oct 2018
Scotland’s Forth Valley Engineering College is celebrating record numbers of women starting engineering apprenticeship courses.
The educational institute in Stirlingshire has registered 19 female engineering ‘modern apprentices’ for courses starting this academic year.
And among the firms whose students are attending, one has achieved parity for the first time between women and men.
Eight females and eight males working for Dunfermline based TechnipFMC are participating.
Dr Ken Thomson, principal of Forth Valley College, said: “It is great to see a record number of women engineering modern apprentices start with us this year and we hope this will inspire even more women to think about engineering as a career.”
News of the record was announced to mark this year’s annual Ada Lovelace Day to celebrate women in STEM. The Forth Valley course spans a variety of skills including welding and fabrication, instrumentation, power distribution and mechanical engineering.
Tamara Janssen (23), who works for TechnipFMC is pictured here showing off her welding skills in the workshop, said: “It is absolutely brilliant to be a part of the largest intake of women MAs at Forth Valley College. Things are changing.”
ECITB, the statutory skills body for the engineering construction industry, sponsors the training of MAs at the college on behalf of various partner companies. Included are Petrofac, Scotrail, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Aker Solutions, WorleyParsons, Ineos and PetroIneos, Dupont and Scottish Power
We hope this will inspire even more women to think about engineering as a career
Dr Ken Thomson, principal, Forth Valley College
The organisation has also seen its largest-ever enrolment of first year women MAs, with four starting on ECITB’s renowned Oil and Gas Technical Apprentice Programme (OGTAP).
Chris Claydon, chief executive of the ECITB, said: “If we are to meet the skills needs of the industry it is vital that we have a diverse workforce, but women make up just nine percent of engineers in the UK and only three percent of the workforce on the average engineering construction site. So we know we need to do more make engineering jobs more appealing to women.”
Photo: Tamara Janssen, Isla Noon, Sophie Benton, Rachael Sneddon, Emma Sharp, Sophie Green, Lauren Sanders and Kira Proctor (all TechnipFMC), Alyssa Malcolmson and Cayleigh Will (both Aker Solutions) and Niamh Duncan (WorleyParsons) and Rebecca McMillan (Petrofac) all ECITB sponsored MAs, Sarah Burke (Scottish Power), Shannon McDowall and Chelbie McMahon (both Scotrail), Lauren Williamson (GSK) and Caitlin Little (Dupont Teijin Films). Not in the photograph are Olivia Stevenson (PetroIneos) and Lauren Yuill (Ineos).
