Celebrating International Women in Engineering Day
Today, we've released new estimates highlighting how much more girls could earn in the future if they went into engineering and technology careers.
It’s a stark reality that the majority of women in our economy are still found in lower-paid sectors and jobs. By comparison, roles in engineering and technology pay around £9,000 a year more than the average across other occupations.
Workforce shortage
We estimate that 240,000 people are needed to join the engineering and technology workforce each year. If women made up 50% of these, together they could have £1 billion more in their pockets than in other jobs.
As it stands, only 17% of the engineering and technology workforce are women – and this needs to change. Increasing the number of women entering these careers would not only help address workforce shortages, but also support a sector that is experiencing some of the fastest economic growth in the UK.
The definition of a win-win
Dr Hilary Leevers, Chief Executive of EUK Education said:
“The UK needs a thriving, diverse engineering and technology workforce to support economic growth, national security and sustainability. We need to grow both the size and diversity of the current workforce to address workforce shortages and enhance productivity and innovation. It’s vital that we have more young people, particularly young women, on education and training pathways into engineering and technology.
“There would be literally millions more women in the engineering and technology workforce if they were present at the same rates as men. This would meet the country’s workforce needs and women themselves would benefit financially. The definition of a win-win.”
Be inspired
This International Women in Engineering Day, we want girls to be inspired by the women who are thriving in engineering and technology careers.
Explore our case studies of inspirational women working in engineering and tech today
To support this ambition, we've built the Gender Pathways Collective with our friends across the engineering and tech community. This partnership wants to massively increase the number of girls and young women studying engineering and technology subjects up to the age of 18.
We want to:
- involve the Secretary of State for Education and the Minister for Women and Equalities with the work of the Gender Pathways Collective
- work with the Gender Pathways Collective on a blueprint for action for government, for launch this in September
There would be literally millions more women in the engineering and technology workforce if they were present at the same rates as men. This would meet the country’s workforce needs and women themselves would benefit financially. The definition of a win-win.
— Dr Hilary Leevers, EUK Education Chief Executive
