Engineering: Not just for the boys

The shortlisted candidates are:

•  Lucy Ackland, a project manager at Renishaw. She is working on the next generation of metal 3D printing machines.

•  Naomi Mitchison is a senior hardware engineer at Selex ES, and is specialising in laser warning systems for military aircraft.

•  Hannah Pearlman is a cooling systems engineer at Ford. She is working on the cooling system for the next generation Fiesta.

•  Jessica Bestwick is working as a higher technical apprentice at Rolls-Royce, developing and testing large aircraft engines.

•  Laurie-Ann Marshall works as an apprentice circuit engineer at ABB, designing electricity sub-station protection and control systems.

The IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards aim to find female role models to help address the UK science and engineering skills crisis. Women currently represent only 6% of the engineering workforce in the UK (source: 2014 IET Skills Survey), the lowest percentage in Europe. If this trend continues, the UK will be in a significantly weakened position to find the 87,000 new engineers it is estimated the country will need each year over the next decade (according to Engineering UK 2014, the state of engineering).

Michelle Richmond, IET Director of Membership, and a former YWE winner, said: "The lack of women in engineering is a huge problem for this country, contributing to skills shortages which threaten the economy. It also means that women are missing out on interesting and rewarding careers.

"The difficulty in attracting women into engineering is down to a combination of things: from the careers advice girls are given in schools, to schools not instilling girls with the confidence to opt for science and maths at A-level, through to employers needing to do more to make their approach to recruitment and retention more female friendly.

"It’s also a result of the lack of inspirational engineering role models for girls – which is where our Young Woman Engineer of the Year winners can play a vital role by encouraging and inspiring more young girls to become engineers.”

The winner will be announced at the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards ceremony on 10 December in central London.  For more information, visit www.theiet.org/ywe.