Officially marked on 23 June every year, this international celebration of all things mechanical aims to raise awareness of women in the engineering industry and the career opportunities available.
Currently only 11% of the engineering workforce in the UK is female. Every year, Truro High joins the many thousands worldwide trying to redress the gender imbalance in this ever-growing industry.
The day saw girls from all across the county heading to the school to try out everything from investigating the engineering behind batteries with Bristol-based Batteries Unlimited to exploring the Sea to Stars Trailer – one of five projects in the UK to receive Royal Astronomical Society funding this year.
Ms Caroline Acton, Business Manager at the MET Office in Exeter, gave the day’s keynote speech before taking a closer look at what pupils were getting up to.
She said: “We talk to a lot of young people as part our outreach work and we find that particularly with girls, the most important thing is to make them aware of all the job roles that exist that will involve some knowledge of STEM. In the future there are going to be a lot of jobs that are underpinned by the STEM subjects so even if you want to be a marketeer or a brand manager you will still need the grounding in STEM.”
“We work now in a global community and today’s girls are going to be competing for the top jobs with people working remotely from virtual offices all over the world. Having the STEM knowledge to be able to operate that way and the resilience to compete is going to be essential. Events like today really help to show the girls just how many opportunities STEM and engineering will offer.”
The companies involved were BRE National Solar Centre, Watson Marlow, WWA, ICE, Kier Construction, the Army, Cornwall College, Falmouth Marine School, West Pharmaceutical Services, Truro and Penwith College, the Roseland Observatory, Batteries Unlimited, Allen & Heath, Goonhilly Heitage Society, Babcock, the University of Exeter, the Plane Factory, IntecSEA and WSP.
