Keltbray, a leading UK specialist engineering business, today marks International Women’s Day by calling for greater gender diversity in engineering.
According to the 2019 Workforce Statistics, there are one million women in STEM in the UK and there are over 50,000 women in engineering professional roles – almost double the number in 2009. The data source used by the Government also shows that women now account for just over 10% of engineering professionals. Recent Government statistics also revealed that in construction, only 16% of the workforce is made up by women.
Keltbray has two business units that challenge this convention. While 33% of Keltbray Remediation’s scientists, engineers or technicians are female, the figure is 24% for Keltbray’s in-house engineering design consultancy, Wentworth House Partnership.
International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The theme for this year is Choose to Challenge and is a call to action for organisations and groups to come together to raise awareness about women’s equality, celebrate women’s achievements, and call out and challenge gender bias and inequality.
Keltbray’s Skills & Communities Director, Holly Price, said: “Over the next few years it’s vital that we do more to attract female workers from all parts of society into the industry to meet future skills shortages. At Keltbray, we’re conscious that attracting the best skills and talent from a diverse range of backgrounds is one of the biggest challenges we face. We’re committed to investing in apprenticeship schemes and delivering training to equip the next generation of talent with the skills they need to join the workforce, and we’re ready to pull out all the stops and widen the talent pool to tap into the real diversity that exists in this country, both in terms of female and ethnic minority capacity.”
