Maidstone and the Weald MP Helen Grant has called for more young women to consider an engineering career as she launched her support for 'The Year of Engineering' with a visit to Maidstone Girls' Grammar School.
The Year of the Engineer is a cross-Government, national campaign running throughout 2018. It is aimed at raising the profile of engineering among 7 to 16 year olds and widening the pool of young people that consider engineering as a career. One of the key priorities of the campaign is to encourage more young women to undertake engineering type careers as it is currently estimated that only 8% of engineers in the UK are female.
During her visit to MGGS Helen met with a group of aspiring female engineers and discussed the benefits and rewards that a career in engineering can bring. She also received a tour of the science classrooms and learned about the innovative teaching which is being deployed to inspire a love of maths and science in young women.
Helen said, 'The Government has rightly identified the need to inspire a new generation of young people to consider a career in engineering in order to facilitate the continued success of this sector of our economy. It was great to meet with such motivated and articulate young women at MGGS and I hope that many of them will continue on their current pathways and be the trailblazing engineers of the future. Engineering is open to everyone and we need more talented, young women to pursue careers in the Science, Technology, and Engineering and Maths sectors.
Deborah Stanley, Head Teacher at MGGS said, 'It was a real pleasure to welcome Helen to MGGS to launch her support for the Year of Engineering. We were delighted to have the opportunity to show her some of the innovative projects we are running to inspire a love of maths and science within our girls. As always, our pupils did us proud in articulating to Helen their hopes and dreams as well as setting out to her some of the challenges they have faced as they strive to pursue engineering careers.