Thursday 23 June is National Women in Engineering Day and a series of activities have been arranged all over the UK to celebrate the occasion.
National Women in Engineering Day is now in its third year and was designed to celebrate the achievements and raise the profile of women in engineering. Ferrovial Agroman sites across the UK have been involved in a variety of events to mark the day and as part of the ongoing support of women in construction.
This year, 35 female team members from the different projects have registered to become STEM Ambassadors to help inspire young people into considering a career related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Mario Mostoles, Managing Director of UK and Ireland said,
“It’s always important to encourage young people into the industry.”
And adds “Days like National Women in Engineering Day go a long way to recognizing women already in the industry but a lot of work still needs to be done to motivate young girls to continue with STEM subjects at school. I’m delighted our staff will be part of that”.
As a STEM Ambassador, staff will be committed to delivering at least one STEM activity or event per year either at a school, college or institution associated with the broad STEM Network.
The UK currently has the lowest participation of women in STEM careers in Europe and an average of 9% women engineers. Ferrovial Agroman UK and Ireland have a rate of 18% women in engineering roles and are striving to build on this figure.
Women in the London teams have also been involved in creating a video montage in response to the question; “What advice would you give to the next generation joining the industry”.
It was not only female engineers who took part in the filming as this day also presents a great opportunity to continue to support and recognise the variety of roles carried out by women in the company.
Also to mark National Women in Engineering Day, Gemma Teale, recently chartered by the Institution of Civil Engineers, has written a blog outlining her journey to chartership which can be found (..)
Across the business units, there have been various initiatives such as devising a mass-selfie campaign featuring all the women involved in the projects, engaging with schools in the surrounding communities to deliver careers workshops and inviting pupils from local schools to the site offices.
The campaign initiatives this year are propelled by the momentum from the recent success of the European Women in Construction and Engineering Awards which saw ten finalists and two wins from the Ferrovial Group; Sofia Guerrero for Best Woman Civil Engineer and Belen Marquina for Best Woman Contractor.
