More than 100 young women interested in engineering, technology and manufacturing careers have been gifted a unique insight into Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) as part of its education programme.
Developed in partnership with Birmingham Metropolitan College, the new course aims to change outdated perceptions of the engineering industry and encourage more women into engineering and manufacturing roles.
Titled ‘Inspiring Tomorrow’s Engineers: Young Women in the Know’, the programme saw participating 15 to 18 year olds from across the Midlands and Merseyside visit JLR’s facilities in Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Halewood. During the one week course, the students toured manufacturing, design and engineering sites and met women from all levels of the business to learn about their experience within the industry.
Completion of the course resulted in a Level 1 Award in Employability and Personal Development, which also assessed the students’ ability to apply for jobs and participate in interviews.
Les Ratcliffe, Head of Community Relations at JLR, said, “We offer a wide range of education programmes with the aim of getting young people excited about engineering and, crucially, to encourage them to make the right subject choices at GCSE-level and beyond. The ‘Young Women In The Know’ course has been developed to encourage female students to consider engineering careers and we hope some of the students on the course today will join Jaguar Land Rover as engineers in the future.”
Danella Bagnall, Project Planning and Integration Director at Jaguar Land Rover, added, “I started my career as an apprentice 25 years ago which was a great way of continuing education, developing skills, and getting into industry. I am now a senior engineering manager which demonstrates the excellent career progression opportunities available to women in a modern engineering-led business like Jaguar Land Rover.”
The ‘Inspiring Tomorrow’s Engineers: Young Women in the Know’ course is part of the ‘Inspiring Tomorrow’s Engineers’ education programme, which JLR runs across the UK to promote STEM subjects and engineering careers.
Young women aged 15-18 interested in participating in the next course in February 2014 should click through to register their interest.
