Program fills science/ engineering gender gap

Group helps female students find summer employment

As advanced as science and engineering both are, apparently there’s still a ways to go with how well women are represented in those fields.

Carly Bigelow is the program administrator for the Women in Science and Engineering Student Summer Employment Program (WISE SSEP) — a program started 26 years ago to not only encourage women to choose a career in science and engineering, but to get them started.

The program targets girls who are completing Grade 11 by giving them paid work placements in science and engineering fields for the summer.

“It’s working to show these young women that careers in sciences and careers in (engineering) can be exciting. They can be rewarding,” says Bigelow.

And the placements aren’t artifical. The students could find themselves working in the faculty of engineering with robotics or in a laboratory role in the faculty of science. They could also be giving tours at the Johnson Geo Centre or at the Manuels River Hibernia Interpretation Centre.

“It’s really showing them that there’s limitless options in these fields,” says Bigelow.

What may be surprising to some people is that it’s still necessary to help bridge a gender gap in these fields. Some companies have implemented diversity quotas — a great measure, says Bigelow, but one that doesn’t solve the issue on its own.

“You can’t hire a certain amount of women in a field like that if you don’t have a certain amount of women pursuing education in that field,” she says.

The SSEP attempts to show girls early on that there are a host of jobs in these fields that may appeal to them.

Last year the SSEP had close to 60 placements for young women.

Anybody interested this year has until April 24 to apply and can check out the WISE SSEP website at wisenl.ca or contact Carly Bigelow at carly.bigelow@wisenl.ca 709864-2484.