STEM Careers: Inspiring more women to become engineers

Eight Year 12 students, from Richmond Sixth Form College, have taken part in ‘Project Dare’ an inspiring initiative to encourage more women to pursue a career in engineering. Hosted and implemented by Network Rail and ARUP, over a period of 5 weeks, the students worked on a range of activities, including team-building tasks designed to introduce them to some of the constraints faced when working in engineering. They also had the opportunity to attend a ‘Careers Speed Shop’ where they met employees from across ARUP and discussed their career paths with them. Eight Year 12 students, from Richmond Sixth Form College, have taken part in ‘Project Dare’ an inspiring initiative to encourage more women to pursue a career in engineering. Hosted and implemented by Network Rail and ARUP, over a period of 5 weeks, the students worked on a range of activities, including team-building tasks designed to introduce them to some of the constraints faced when working in engineering. They also had the opportunity to attend a ‘Careers Speed Shop’ where they met employees from across ARUP and discussed their career paths with them.      The event was organised by Future Hy and York Cares, based at the University of York, who worked with Network Rail and ARUP to devise the inspiring programme of events. Students worked in multi-disciplinary teams to address different elements of an engineering challenge. This involved designing an alternative railway route from York to Nottingham.  In addition, they visited Network Rail’s Training Centre where they had the opportunity to learn about different roles that are available and the different career options in the rail industry.   Year 12 student, Jade Atkins commented: “The project helped to develop my resilience and it has definitely taught me a lot about an area that was difficult to understand at first – it has shown me that I can develop specialist knowledge in engineering to use in the future”.   Ms Mannion, Careers Leader, commented: “I was very pleased that our students were able to learn about the many opportunities available in this sector.  Seeing the new training centre was an added bonus!  We are really grateful to the University of York for organising it all.”