International Women in Engineering Day #INWED18 - Industry Apprentice Council Guest Blog
Guest Blog by Helen Brindley, Degree Apprentice, Siemens plc
Helen is a member of the Industry Apprentice Council (IAC), founded by EAL, who act on behalf of apprentices in the advanced manufacturing and engineering sector and other related industries. To help us celebrate International Women in Engineering Day, Helen has written a guest blog telling us about her experiences as a female in engineering.
I enjoy telling people about my job, but often when people find out that I am an engineering apprentice I receive one of two reactions. "Why have you decided to do that?" Or," That's good, they are always looking for more women". Although the somewhat outdated opinion that only men can be engineers is a thing of the past, there is still a severe lack of female engineers in the workforce, resulting in a vast talent pool that is not yet being utilised!
There is a misconception of engineers that they get covered in grease and get their hands dirty. Although that can be a part of the role where some jobs do have this background, not all engineering positions involve this. Design engineers, for example are office based, where they have the opportunity to go out and visit installations, however the majority of their time is spend in the office carrying out important engineering tasks such as creating schematics and making revision changes.