Stonelaw skills girls

Pupils preparing for bright careers

Ambitious Stonelaw High schoolgirls recently took part in a huge event encouraging females to consider a career in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM).

S2 pupils from the Rutherglen school were among 130 schoolgirls who attended the careers session at University West of Scotland’s Hamilton campus.

Katie Booth, Stephanie Gilroy, Charley McFall, Morven Todd, Emily Fergus and Rachel Collie heard from women in industry about the benefits of pursuing a career in STEM and the huge number of job opportunities.

Research shows that over half a million job openings in science, research, engineering and technology will need to be filled over the next six years to replace retiring workers.

In engineering alone, there is an estimated shortfall of people with the right skills of up to 60,000 a year.

Yusra Omara, from Scottish Water, spoke about her career in STEM, while pupils also took part in a series of hands-on workshops.

Charitable organisation SmartSTEMs organised the careers event in partnership with EDF Energy to encourage more people from diverse backgrounds to study STEM subjects at school.

The session was one of 12 SmartSTEMs and EDF Energy will deliver before the end of the year, reaching up to 5,000 pupils.

Paul Winkle, EDF Energy’s Scottish business director, explained: “EDF Energy hopes that by capturing their imaginations at events like this one more children will be inspired to study STEM subjects at school.

“Jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths are expected to grow at double the rate of other occupations but it’s projected that there won’t be enough graduates and apprentices to fill the roles.”

Professor Ian Allison, Dean of the University’s School of Engineering and Computing, added: “UWS is committed to developing and encouraging the best talent in science, engineering, technology and mathematics and we are delighted to be hosting this event at our Hamilton Campus.

“The university is leading the way on attracting girls and women into STEM and this event will give female pupils from throughout the area an important opportunity to discover more about STEM subjects and the exciting career opportunities available to them in these areas.

“Working in partnership with SmartSTEMs is just one of the many initiatives the university has taken to encourage and enable pupils into these fields.

“Around the world girls go on to become engineers and scientists in equal numbers to boys, but in the UK just one in four are female.

“We believe that this event will help to open up the opportunities to these girls – and in due course our society will benefit from the future technological developments that they will create.”