Women’s Engineering Society joins the Tomorrow’s Engineers Code

Release Date: 23 Jun 2022

To honour all of the inspiring female figures working in engineering, the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) has joined the Tomorrow’s Engineers Code, just in time to mark International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), which takes place today (Thursday 23 June).

Supporting and celebrating women working in the engineering sector is imperative if the sector wants to inspire more young people to become tomorrow’s engineers – it's imperative to showcase representation. WES joining The Code is a step in the right direction for the representation of women in engineering.

WES is a charity and a professional network of women engineers, scientists and technologists offering inspiration, support and professional development. WES works in partnership to support and inspire women to achieve as engineers, scientists and as leaders, and to encourage the education of engineering.

The Code brings employers together to inspire a diverse engineering workforce, and it is all about working together to increase the diversity and number of young people entering engineering careers. To achieve these goals, Signatories make 4 pledges about their approach to funding, designing, delivering, and learning from engineering outreach activities (including STEM programmes dedicated to inspiring young people into engineering).

Although EngineeringUK’s recent briefing on women in engineering showed that 16.5% of the engineering workforce were women in 2021, there is still much to do to ensure women are represented in the sector. The Engineering Brand Monitor showed that perceptions of engineering start early, with 63% of young people aged 11 to 19 agreeing that ‘girls face more barriers that make it harder for them to get ahead in engineering than boys’. It was also highlighted that 65% of parents and 55% of secondary school STEM teachers agreed that ‘women face more obstacles that make it harder for them to get into engineering than men’.

Karen Woodward, Business Partnership Manager at EngineeringUK, said: “The Tomorrow’s Engineers Code is all about bringing organisations within the engineering sector together to share insight and inspire the next generation of engineers. I am thrilled that WES has joined The Code community and it is even more exciting that we can announce this as part of INWED.

“We are excited to be working with WES and delivering a masterclass for their partners next month. Representation is incredibly important in engineering, and I hope this partnership can help to ensure more young women see themselves as engineers.”

ENDS

You can find more information on the Tomorrow’s Engineers Code website at https://code.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk/

Notes to Editors

Media contact: Macy Richardson ([email protected] / 07597 858947)

The Tomorrow’s Engineers Code is a commitment to work towards common goals to increase the diversity and number of young people entering engineering careers. The Code was created by and is for the engineering community and has been brought to life through funding and in-kind support from a range of organisations including the founding Signatories Anglo American, the Department for Education and Shell. www.code.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk

EngineeringUK is a not-for-profit organisation that works in partnership with the engineering community to inspire tomorrow’s engineers. We lead the engagement programmes: The Big Bang, Robotics Challenge and Energy Quest and help schools bring STEM to life through real-world engineering via Neon. We bring engineering careers inspiration and resources together through Tomorrow’s Engineers and manage The Code, which drives change at scale to increase the number and diversity of young people choosing academic and vocational pathways into engineering. We base everything we do on evidence and share our insight widely. www.engineeringuk.com