As we celebrated International Women in Engineering on Sunday 23 June it is also important to look at the whole arena of STEM and females.
If we think about key skills needed in today’s workplace: problem solving, analytical thinking and the ability to work independently these transferable skills are all related to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Looking at the figures for STEM subjects, you’ll find fewer girls than boys choosing to study them in secondary school, and fewer girls choosing to make a career in STEM fields. According to WISE, women make up 23% of those cores STEM occupations in the UK and 24% of those working in core STEM industries.
They recently published that the trends are very positive, with more women working in core STEM than ever before. 61,430 more women work in core STEM in 2017 than in 2016. The number of men in core STEM fell by 45,980 in the same period. Their short term goal is to have one million women working in core STEM occupations by 2020.
Here at AJ Power we are doing our best to help meet this short term goal. Niamh Carey the only female in our engineering department is flying the flag for female engineers. She is also encouraging the next generation of young people to consider these core subjects through her role as a mentor on our HLA Programme and as an Ambassador with STEM NI. To read more about Niamh journey click here.
We also have several females promoting the mathematical strand of STEM from chartered accountants, trainee’s accountants and accounts administrators who have chosen to continue their career in the field of mathematics. Within our sales department we have qualified female engineers transferring their product knowledge to meet customer needs and requirements rather than on the product design side. (As pictured above)
An extract from the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts Delivering STEM skills for the economy Forty-Seventh Report of Session 2017–19 Report, stated, “STEM skills are crucial for the UK’s productivity, and a shortage of STEM skills in the workforce is one of our key economic problems. The future workforce relies on many more children and young people being encouraged to take STEM subjects and enter STEM careers.”
AJ Power employs a vast workforce, many from Northern Ireland’s specialist universities, designing, developing, manufacturing and testing a wide range of gensets. We pride ourselves on our highly skilled workforce across all divisions which is displayed not only in our products but also our services which we offer to customers. As a leading global engineering employer it is vital that we continue to promote STEM to young people male and female as they are the future of an innovative and dynamic economy.
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