Know any Talented Young Female Engineers? Applications Open for IET Awards

Samantha Bennett, engineering manager, ADB Alarms

That the UK has the fewest female engineering professionals of any European country should concern a security industry reliant on technical ingenuity to drive innovation and integrate disparate security systems.

If the country that gave birth to the industrial revolution cannot find the 1.82 million people with the engineering skills it is projected to need from by 2022, then the UK security industry’s considerable global clout could be in serious jeapordy.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is hoping a competition to recognise young female engineering talent will help inspire more women to enter a profession whose cachet has waned in post-industrial Britain.

Taking place in December the Young Women Engineer of the Year Awards are now open for applications and nominations. The deadline for entry is 30 June 2015.

IFSEC International 2015, meanwhile, will again feature the Engineers of Tomorrow competition (see box-out below right), where apprentice installers/engineers pit their skills against one another in pursuit of cash prizes.

Just 6% of UK-based engineers are female, significantly lower than the likes of Latvia, Bulgaria and Cyprus where the rate is 30%.

Included among that 6% is Samantha Bennett, engineering manager at ADB Alarms, which provides security and fire services for domestic, commercial and industrial premises throughout the UK.

“I’m in my 10th year with ADB Alarms and I have come across only one other female engineer,” she admits. “After nearly a decade of working in the industry I still get mixed reactions.”

Cultural bulwark

There’s a clear cultural bulwark to attracting more women into the profession, according to a recent IET survey, which found that just 7% of parents with girls aged 9-12 would encourage their daughters to become engineers.

Samantha Bennett, whose role includes servicing and installations, conducting training, quality control and monitoring technological change, agrees that the UK is not a culturally conducive environment for aspiring – or even actual – female engineers.

“I can’t help but feel women are not given the same opportunity from a young age and it is a constant battle to prove our worth in such a male-dominated trade. However, I have a very supportive employer who has encouraged me to achieve my goals and recently in 2014 I became manager of my department.”

Bennett, who also runs evening classes in security skills, believes there are merits to encouraging women into the profession beyond fostering equality and broadening the talent pool.

“I feel the security industry could benefit from more female engineers,” she says. “We find our elderly clients, especially ladies, feel more comfortable with a female engineer as we may seem less intimidating.

“Myself and my employer, ADB Alarms, would love to get more women involved and I would love a female addition to my team.”

Former winners of the awards include Naomi Mitchison, a senior hardware engineer at Selex ES, Abbie Hutty, a spacecraft engineer currently working on Europe’s first Rover Mission to Mars and Yewande Akinola, an environmental services engineer with a passion for innovation and sustainable water supply.

“Engineering is a hugely exciting and diverse career with the opportunity to do something life- or world-changing,” says IET President-elect Naomi Climer. “The Young Women Engineer of the Year awards, which have been running for 39 years, are all about finding role models to get girls – and young people in general – excited about the possibilities of an engineering career.”

Says reigning IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Naomi Mitchison: “I chose engineering because having done Maths and Physics at school it seemed like an interesting way to put those subjects to good use, while doing something a bit unusual and different.

“The great thing about winning the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year award was that it made me realise that the work I do promoting engineering gives me the opportunity to be a role model.

“I don’t think you wake up one day and decide to be a role model, you just realise that standing up and speaking in front of student, parents and teachers means you are seen as such, and that’s an important realisation.”

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