Generous donation to inspire girls
EX-RAF test pilot Captain Desmond Penrose has made a generous donation - an amount he does not want to disclose - which will fund a two-day residential engineering course at Loughborough University for 50 girls, aged 14 to 15-years-old.
The goal of the Loughborough initiative is to encourage more youngsters to consider STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects as a future career.
Female youngsters, that is – although Capt Penrose, 87, points out the distinction is purely academic.
“I don’t feel that there’s a male and female difference in engineers,” he says. “The challenge is encouraging girls to be interested in the subject from an early age.”
It’s a much-needed boost as it seems the engine has stalled.
According to the National Centre for Universities and Business, the proportion of young women studying engineering has remained virtually static since 2012.
“We need to enhance the possibility of women choosing engineering over other subjects,” says Capt Penrose. “It’s something their male counterparts don’t need.
“The preconceptions that females can’t make it in STEM subjects should be put completely to one side, it’s just rubbish.
“I’m certain that if we can get more females involved in engineering it would be for the furtherance of our country.”
Just 9% of the British engineering workforce is female, says the Institute of technology and Engineering (IET) – well below other European countries such as Latvia, Bulgaria and Cyprus who lead with nearly 30%.
Loughborough’s programme aimed at improving these statistics will be led by the University’s Schools and Colleges Liaison Team.
Manager Kirsty Wilkinson says the event will take place in summer 2018, and will be an opportunity to open the eyes of young girls to the delights of science and engineering.
“The role of women in STEM is growing, but it’s still lightyears behind what it should it be,” says Kirsty.
“Desmond’s donation will be extremely useful for bridging that gap and we thank him for his generosity.”
Capt Penrose’s own engineering roots lie here with Loughborough.
In 1951, he graduated in Aeronautical Engineering, moving seamlessly into the ranks of the RAF and becoming a test pilot – making sure the latest airplanes were fit for the “average pilot”, as he puts it.
He added: “We used to be an industrial nation and I feel that we are not as industrial as we used to be – especially in the field of engineering.”