The Centre for Enterprise and WISE hold flagship event to encourage women into STEM Careers

The WISE campaign works tirelessly to help women break into, and progress in, what are seen as traditionally male professions. At the Centre for Enterprise, we know that helping people to fulfil their potential is one of the most rewarding things that you can do, and so we teamed up with WISE to put on a workshop to discuss female talent, how to recruit and, crucially, retain women in these roles.

 

The focus of the event was an interactive workshop, and a panel discussion, featuring representatives from some of the big names in construction and IT, BAM Nuttall, Capgemini and Amec Foster Wheeler, as well as Helen Wollaston from the WISE Campaign.

Discussion highlighted that the exclusion of women from the roles started with stereotypes at school about what subjects are suitable for boys and girls, and ran straight through the career ladder, with women being passed over for roles because of the potential for site visits and progression to be disturbed by family. Tom Jones, Vice President for Strategic Business Development at Amec Foster Wheeler talked about the importance of visiting schools at all levels of education, to reinforce the message that girls and women can look forward to long and prosperous careers in STEM subjects.

WISE have started the 10 Steps campaign, which is unique in that it focuses on sectors where women are in the minority. It has been signed by leaders of over 50 science, technology, engineering and manufacturing firms with a significant workforce in the UK, including the panel companies, BAM Nuttall, Capgemini and Amec Foster Wheeler.

A diverse workforce is important for not only staff, but also for the health of an organisation, and all of these companies are committed to making changes to encourage and retain women in their sectors. Kate O’Connell, from BAM Nuttall, started Women@BAM to foster a supportive environment. All of them agree that getting the top executives at the company to buy in to these initiatives is crucial to their success, and have offered flexible working hours, and experimented with unconscious bias training.  Frances Duffy, of Capgemini stressed the importance of looking at the whole picture, and mentioned their use of exit interviews to ascertain what exactly stall retention of women.

All of the companies present stated that they had seen improvements since committing to the 10 steps Campaign and Helen Wollaston expressed how much she has enjoyed working on it, saying that there is ‘so much opportunity for making a difference’.

 

If you would like to know more about the WISE Campaign or how you can get involved, contact us today!