On Wednesday 10 December 2014, the IET announced the winner of their Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award.

The award celebrates inspirational female engineering role models who can help to inspire more girls to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects at school – and well…go on to become engineers.

The engineering and technology skills gap is getting bigger –  how big? Well, only 6% of women make up the engineering industry, meaning the UK will need to find 87,000 new engineers each year for the next decade.

This is a huge deal!

Latest research from the IET shows that only 1% of parents choose engineering as a career for their daughters compared to 11% of parents who choose it for their sons.

Even Labour Leader Ed Miliband thinks this is a total joke!

“Britain’s lack of female engineers should be a “matter of national embarrassment. In 2013, only 14% of engineering graduates were women. And only 4% of professionally registered engineers are female. The next Labour government will seek to put the UK back at the forefront of invention, technology and engineering with a national mission to create an extra 400,000 engineers by 2020. We are determined to make it happen. And we have a plan to make it happen.”

So female engineers, if you’re out there, the industry needs you, like now!

In the meantime, this year’s IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year will be here to champion role models and hopefully convince your parents that engineering is a creative, exciting and interesting career choice for you.

This year’s award finalists are:

• Naomi Mitchison (from Selex-ES)  – Senior Hardware engineer, working on laser warning systems for military aircraft.

• Lucy Ackland (from Renishaw) – Project manager, working on the next generation of 3D printing machines.

• Laurie Ann Marshall (from ABB) – Apprentice circuit engineer, designs protection and control systems for electricity sub-stations.

• Jessica Bestwick (from Rolls Royce) – apprentice working with developing and testing large aircraft engines.

• Hannah Pearlman (from Ford) – working on the cooling systems for the new model Ford Fiesta.

Steph McGovern from BBC Breakfast will reveal the award winners at the ceremony taking place at West Minister Ballroom, Park Plaza, London.

For more information visit:
www.conferences.theiet.org/ywe