“IF we fail to inspire our young females, we are cutting ourselves off from an enormous pool of potential talent.”
That was the message from the Employment and Learning Minister Stephen Farry as he addressed an event hosted by SEMTA NI to celebrate the success of the Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), Addressing the Gender Balance’ programme.
The event marked a year-long campaign to support women into management positions in advanced manufacturing and engineering companies. The initiative set out to support 20 SMEs and four large companies develop 50 females in a successful career in STEM, promote STEM to 1,000 schoolgirls and establish a women’s network to mentor and support women and girls.
Addressing the event, Mr Farry said: “The workforce of the future will be strongly reliant on STEM skills. I would specifically urge young females to consider studying STEM subjects in school and pursue careers in STEM.”
The initiative is funded by the Department for Employment and Learning and delivered by SEMTA NI, the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies.
Sandra McAlister, who works for Bombardier Aerospace, is among those to have benefited from the programme and spoke at the event.
She said: “This programme has supported businesses with gender balance while empowering individual women to develop their careers:’
Meanwhile, entry is now open for the Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) analytics training academy 2015. The academy aims to pro-vide graduates with the skills and experience required to take up the new opportunities being created by PwC in data analytics.
It will offer an intensive eight-week training programme to 14 successful applicants. For more in-formation and how to apply please select the link provided: PwC