The new Women in SET website has been warmly welcomed by a wide range of individuals and organisations with an interest in promoting careers in science, engineering and technology to women.
Various employers, students, and industry bodies have put their shoulders behind the development of the site, found within gradcracker.com, and are now contributing articles and blogs to support the drive to make women more aware of the opportunities open to them within SET.
The strategic value of such a change in mindset is becoming increasingly critical to the UK’s future economic prosperity.
Gradcracker says companies are queuing up to sponsor the website, with National Grid being the first headline sponsor.
They are said to be “very keen to address the serious gender imbalances” in the workplace.
While the number of graduates entering the energy sector is on the rise, the serious imbalances referred to by gradcracker.com are all too apparent in Aberdeen, where the glass ceiling has yet to be smashed convincingly.
Gradcracker says the financial contributions by the likes of National Grid will enable it to devote more resources towards further development of the initiative.
Female engineering and technology students have already welcomed the support Women in SET will provide.
Gradcracker has reported a not untypical example of a female student in the first year of a mechanical engineering degree, calling them to say she was the only female student on her course and how reassured she was to be able to read of how others like her had progressed to a successful career.
Again, this is pretty much the situation in Aberdeen’s two universities where, while there are perhaps more women on oil & gas-related degree programmes than classical mechanical engineering in most English universities, they represent an almost pitiful minority.
Gradcracker has also received support from organisations set up to promote careers in SET to women. Interconnect, UKRC and WISE are already working closely with them to promote and develop the website.
Emma Docherty, who is leading the initiative at Gradcracker, said. “The positive response to Women in SET is very encouraging and the launch of the website is certainly timely.
“I recently attended the Science for Careers Conference at the National STEM Centre, where organisations such as the Department for Education, the Science Council and various universities were discussing how to raise awareness of careers in science, engineering and technology among young people.
“It was clear that there was already a disparity between boys’ and girls’ attitudes to science subjects in early teenage years. It is therefore important that the small minority of females who go on to study STEM subjects at university are given every encouragement to pursue careers in the industry.”
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