Expert calls for girls to be engineers

YOUNG children are natural engineers whose curiosity and creativity should be encouraged from an early age, an expert has said.

Professor Dame Ann Dowling, the Royal Academy of Engineering’s first female president, also believes selective schooling is to blame for the lack of women working as professional engineers in the UK.

She said: “Girls do very well at GCSE science but a small number, only 20%, continue physics on into sixth form.

“And physics and maths are the standard entry to do a degree in engineering.

“I am concerned that young women in particular are giving up physics and probably making these decisions when they’re 14 or 15.”