Jaguar Land Rover encourages more girls to join the industry
DID you know that women make up just 11 per cent of UK automotive industry engineers? And as a result of that gender gap it’s no surprise that recent research by Women in Engineering shows just a quarter of girls aged 16-18 would consider an engineering career. With a passion to change gender attitudes, which are established at an early age, Jaguar Land Rover visited a group of primary school children to mark International Women in Engineering Day.
The youngsters were delighted to meet 27-year-old Charlotte Cooper, who worked on the Range Rover Sport SVR, and was keen to show them the value of challenging their assumptions. During her visit Charlotte, who is an innovation lead in SVO for JLR and a member of the company’s Women in Engineering & Allies Network, encouraged the girls to study STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. Charlotte said: “My career in engineering has proved so rewarding, but I remain in a minority. I’m proud of the efforts of JLR to redress this gender imbalance and I look forward to what the future holds for the engineering industry in the UK and around the world.”
To that end, JLR runs education programmes to inspire more girls to choose these aforementioned subjects and more students into engineering in general. In 2018/19, the car manufacturer engaged with 149,743 young people through their global school STEM education programmes, while in the UK 18,210 young people visited their Education Centres at their five main manufacturing and engineering sites to learn about JLR and STEM career pathways.