The skills shortage within engineering in the UK is something that has been well documented here at Connecting Industry, and the need to encourage more young people into STEM subjects and the promotion of apprenticeships and vocational qualifications is something we’ve been championing for quite some time.
One obvious area for improvement of course, is the number of women in the industry. There have been schemes and initiatives launched during the last few years to help redress the balance, such as the NICEIC’s successful ‘Jobs for the Girls’ campaign. However, engineering still predominantly remains a male dominated industry and one that, traditionally, women have shied away from for a number of reasons, from the subject matter not having the lure of other more ‘attractive’ subjects, to worries and fears over discrimination.
However, there are exceptions. Here, Philippa Oldham, head of transport and manufacturing at the Intuition of Mechanical Engineers, talks about her career in the industry, some of the projects she has worked on and some of her experiences – which may prove surprising and encouraging to any young woman thinking of a career in engineering.
Speaking about her earlier career, Oldham commented, “When I was younger I had a passion for Formula One and motor sport so I wanted to understand more about how engines worked. I therefore went and worked in a garage and after that I wrote to every Formula One company – I had two responses, one of which came from McLaren who suggested going to work for Ilmor who provide their engines, who have now been bought out by Mercedes and are based in Brixworth.
“I worked there during my summers from 1996 until 2000 – starting on the shop floor, learning how to build an F1 engine which constituted a huge variety of different types of work. Everyone wanted to help and be involved, and I never received any derogatory comments. They were always very supportive because I wanted to learn and they wanted to teach – they want people to be interested in what they’re doing. During my time there I worked on the 1998 car that helped win Mika Hakkinen the Formula One world championship (above).
“I then studied at the University of Birmingham, doing a mechanical engineering MSc. One of the interesting but more negative things I experienced in my career was when I was going around the various universities for interviews. One university professor told me that women don’t and shouldn’t do engineering!”
While at Birmingham, Oldham worked on a project looking at combatting low tech terrorism. This came after September 11th so there was a huge amount of information to look at from dirty bombs to scanners etc.
Following university Oldham then went to work for QinetiQ, where, following the Concorde air crash in 2000, the company won a contract to develop a scanning detector, Tarsier, which is used for foreign object detection (FOD) on airport runways. This is now used in a number of airports around the world including Heathrow and Dubai.
Picking up the story, Oldham continued, “I moved to the Farnborough office to become a product engineer where I worked on the Talon bomb disposal robot which is being used in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also worked on a project called Gadget which I helped develop and design (after moving to the aerospace part of the business), which is an anti-jamming device to go on tanks (below).
“Throughout my time I have had a number of individuals that have provided a great deal of support. There aren’t a lot of women in engineering, but I have found the men that I have met and worked with to be very supportive and help make sure that women are given equal opportunities to be put forward and considered for projects, and I think that’s a very important message.
“In 2011 I joined the Intuition of Mechanical Engineers as their head of transport and manufacturing and I’m now involved with policy. I write reports and help promote the work that our members do (100,000 worldwide), to highlight their work and innovations, and to communicate that to other engineers, the media and to the general public. We also work closely with members of parliament – to educate them and get them involved.”
Oldham went on to explain that there are a number of innovative projects and future technologies out there to get people excited about engineering, and inspire the next generation – women AND men. The common theme is that engineering isn’t very ‘sexy’ but Oldham pointed out that there are so many different things you can do with engineering that many people are unaware of – from fashion design and movie special effects, to the world of prosthesis.
In terms of getting more women, and young people in general, involved in engineering, Oldham further highlighted the problem that she feels exists at school level. “I think schools are a problem,” she said, “Careers advice is non-existent in some schools and physics teaching in particular is really poor in this country, and I personally think the problem is that teachers do their degree and go straight back and become teachers, so what life experience do they really have in relation to industry and businesses.” Oldham also went on to say that as far as engineering is concerned, young people are steered more towards the traditional paths while the amount of diverse areas that are affected by engineering are not really communicated by teachers as they are not understood as falling within the remit of engineering or manufacturing.
A potential hurdle for women in a career, particularly in a traditionally male dominated one, is what happens if they decide to have a family and what to do with regards returning to work. Oldham commented, “Ultimately we need more engineers so the process of recruiting them should be gender neutral, but there still exists a problem for women when it comes to their career options. The thing that I’m very aware of as a woman is that I wanted a career, and worked really hard to get it. However, I recently got married and am thinking of starting a family – and I’m petrified as a female engineer at this point because in my experience, every other female engineer I’ve known who has done this and gone part time has lost credibility in the work she’s done. That’s a real concern.
“So, women need to know what their career options are. There are things that will make the situation better, such as changes to parental leave, as it will mean that hopefully managers will look at both a male and a female applicant on a more level playing field.
“The balance between males and females in medicine is now around 50/50 which is great, but we need to learn from that as an engineering community and ask how they achieved this. I think it’s partly about getting more women to realise that they can come back to work after having a family and making them realise that they can do the work and actually proving yourself rather than thinking ‘I’m just going to go part time’. It’s also about managers being open and having frank discussions with their employees.”
Regardless of gender, the UK is in dire need of engineers so Oldham emphasised that engineering is involved in everything we do and see – and the importance of educating people in that. Ultimately communication in what engineering and manufacturing actually is needs to be broader and wider so people can actually get excited about it.
