HS2 should encourage women engineers

WEST Midlands mayor Andy Street and Government ministers want to use construction of the HS2 high speed rail line as an opportunity to get more women and people from ethnic minorities involved in engineering.

Mr Street and HS2 Minister Nusrat Ghani said the UK urgently needed more engineers, both to build the new rail line and for future construction projects.

Part of the answer is to get more women and ethnic minorities involved in engineering, they said.

In a joint blog, they wrote: “There can be no doubt, diversity is one of the crucial issues we must tackle in the Year of Engineering.

“The engineering workforce has been 91 per cent male and 94 per cent white. In 2017, women were only eight per cent of engineering apprenticeships.

“In an industry that ranges from aerospace and artificial intelligence, to media and medicine we need our future engineers to reflect the diversity of talent and experience all around us.”

The National College for High Speed Rail, near Aston University in Birmingham city centre, was set up to train staff to build the HS2 line, due to connect Birmingham with London, Leeds and Manchester. It will teach 1,200 students each year.

But the UK is “desperately short of engineers”, said Mr Street and Ms Ghani.

They said: “We need 186,000 engineers every year until 2024 and there is a shortage of 20,000 engineering graduates a year.”

The pair also predicted the HS2 line would attract employers to the city.

“The infectious energy of some of this country’s biggest companies, who are already moving to the Midlands with plans to expand and seize the opportunities on offer, will drive forward the creation of new jobs and businesses,” they added.

“HS2 is already helping attract world-class businesses to base themselves and invest in cities outside London – with companies like HSBC, Jaguar Land Rover and BBC Three already in Birmingham and others looking at a future in the West Midlands.” more