From marshmallows to McLaren! Ricardo inspires women to choose a career in engineering with 'Daughters at Work' day

From marshmallows to McLaren! Ricardo inspires women to choose a career in engineering with 'Daughters at Work' day

To celebrate International Women’s Day, specialist hi-tech engineering consultancy Ricardo organised a “Bring your daughter to work” day. The open day was a great success with around 40 young women aged 7 – 17 attending the activity-packed sessions.

One of the main objectives for Ricardo was to highlight the importance of engineering as a career option to young women and to try to help with the gender disparity within the sector. According to the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), women represent only 11% of the UK engineering workforce. That’s why encouraging more women to join its industry and business is an important focus for Ricardo.
 

Experimenting with engineering 

Ricardo 'Daughter to Work' Day

The day began with a presentation about what engineering is and why it is an important subject and potential career option. One of Ricardo’s HR Training & Recruitment Advisors, Caroline Duffy, spoke to the children about the sectors the cover, including motorsport, rail, defence and the environment. Caroline explained that, in essence, engineering is all about solving problems in a creative and efficient way.

After the children re-fuelled on chocolate, the real fun began! The girls were split into three separate age-related groups and spent time with some of Ricardo’s trainee engineers, experimenting with real, hands-on tasks. Subjects such as structures, pressure and volumes, aerodynamics, buoyancy and motion creation were covered, each demonstrated by simple but effective activities.

Building a tower with spaghetti and marshmallows was a particular favourite, especially for the younger participants. Although it was generally agreed that the towers would have been taller if the marshmallows weren’t eaten as quickly as they were opened! 
 

Inspiring the next generation 

Ricardo 'Daughter to Work' Day During a break from the activities, one of Ricardo’s university placements, Rachael Ker, spoke to the children about why she decided to become an engineer.
 

“The main reason I chose engineering as a career path was because I really wanted to make a difference. Although there are no engineers in my family, and I was not really encouraged to do so at school, I really liked Maths and Science and wanted to know how I could use this in the real world.”

Rachael won the Ricardo-sponsored ‘Most Promising Female Engineer’ award whilst at Surrey University and was offered a place at Ricardo’s HQ in Shoreham. This award has been running for three years now and encourages female engineers to apply for a bursary and year-long placements in some of Ricardo’s offices. Racheal concluded: 
 

““I really love the diversity of work and the opportunities that this placement has given me, and I’m delighted to be able to bring a female perspective to the projects I’m working on."

The children were joined by their parents and STEM ambassadors at lunch in the main hall and the noise levels rose considerably! Many of the children we spoke to were clearly enjoying the opportunity to roll their sleeves up and carry out hands-on activities.

During lunch, another trainee engineer, Mike Booker, spoke to us about why he thought there was a problem with attracting young women to the engineering industry.
 

“Basically, I think it is all to do with perception. Parents may not naturally encourage their child to go into an industry that can be tainted with being dirty and out-dated. Here at Ricardo, we are actively challenging this misconception and are working hard to attract more females to our business.”

Championing diversity 

Ricardo 'Daughter to Work' Day Working closely with Ricardo as their Workforce Solutions provider, Gattaca is helping Ricardo to ensure that more and more engineering roles are being filled by women.

Our on-site service includes market intelligence to reflect on diversity so that we can collaboratively target areas for improvement. Based on the outcomes and recommendations, our team helped Ricardo create a ‘returners programme’ aimed at encouraging women to return to the business following a career break. Gattaca also provided training sessions to Ricardo managers to ensure that job descriptions were written with diverse applicants in mind and to help avoid unconscious biases. The team also implemented an alumni communications strategy; regular messages to former employees encouraging them to return to the business.

Returning to the activities of the day, the children were having great fun pushing each other around on a home-made hovercraft to learn about air pressure. Meanwhile, the tennis ball cannon also proved a popular experiment. The groups were shown how to build an electric motor to demonstrate electromagnetism and a wind tunnel was used to demonstrate how aerodynamics keeps an aeroplane in the air.

The day was interspersed into various facility visits including the McLaren engine processing plant and the anechoic sound chamber where the children’s voices were muffled to almost silence. We wondered whether we should have spent the whole day in there!

The children were finally reunited with their parents at the end of the visit and were buzzing with excitement about all they had learned and achieved during the day.

Whether or not the 40 young women who attended the day will pursue a career in engineering, Ricardo were rightly pleased they managed to change some perceptions about the industry. All those we spoke to were really impressed with the day, the site, the activities and thoroughly enjoyed their experience; especially the marshmallows!
 

Gattaca Workforce Solutions 

Your employees are the key to your success, so having the right recruitment strategy in place is crucial to creating or maintaining a competitive advantage in your marketplace. Find out more about our Workforce Solutions services by clicking here

 
Back to top