The STEM Outreach Team are committed to increasing the number of girls applying to engineering courses at the University of Leeds and therefore increasing the diversity of students registering at Leeds at undergraduate level.

We are working with four partner schools across West Yorkshire to deliver a sustained programme of activity across 5 years. The programme will target girls in year 7 – 10 and introduce engineering as a subject and potential career. Students will have the opportunity to meet industry professionals and academics from the University of Leeds to get a flavour of what engineering can offer at university and beyond.

The project will be running for the third year from September 2021.

‘Women make up just 12.3% of all engineers in the UK, and only one in five of jobs are held by women in the wider engineering sector as a whole’ says Elizabeth Donnelly, CEO of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) https://www.theguardian.com/careers/2019/jun/26/how-changing-attitudes-are-closing-the-gender-gap-in-engineering

‘Only 35% of STEM teachers felt confident in giving engineering careers advice, and this has remained unchanged for a few years.’ (Engineering UK 2017: The State of Engineering, http://www.engineeringuk.com/media/1355/enguk-report-2017.pdf)

Comparitech discuss the importance of women in cybersecurity – ’35+ initiatives to get more women into cybersecurity’

With a gender imbalance in the cybersecurity field, there are lots of initiatives that aim to get women more involved. We discuss the cybersecurity gender gap and reveal more than 35 initiatives that are helping to close it.