Involving all girls in Year 8 and 9, the day-long event was designed to excite their interest in engineering as a career.
To help girls discover the many opportunities on offer, engineers from a huge range of industries were on hand to chat about their own experiences and demonstrate what their jobs involve.
Never before has there been a better time to be a woman in engineering with more and more companies keen to add female members to their teams. Currently only 13% of the engineering workforce in the UK is female.
With the aim of redressing this imbalance, the school usually welcomes more than 200 girls from local schools to introduce them to the opportunities that engineering has to offer. When restrictions permit, the school can’t wait to welcome these students into school again.
Headmistress, Mrs Sarah Matthews said: “Whilst the numbers this year have had to be reduced due to the current restrictions, the opportunities on offer today have been, as always, absolutely incredible. As a student in a girls’ school, you are significantly more likely to continue to study Maths and Physics at A Level than you would be in co-ed – it’s a huge divide which is having a major impact on the number of girls considering and pursuing a career in engineering. When we started running this event, only 5% of the UK engineering workforce was female. Eight years on, it’s 13% and that is a testament to how important days like this are for inspiring young women. We would like to say a huge thank you to every company involved.”
The companies involved were Watson Marlow Fluid Technology Group, the University of Exeter, the Army, Serco, Planet A Energy, Mi-Space UK, Geothermal Engineering, Cornwall College, Pendennis Shipyard and Cornwall Sea to Stars.
The keynote speech was given by top motorsport consultant, Christiana Pace.
