International Women in Engineering Day 

International Women in Engineering Day, brought to you by Women’s Engineering Society (WES) will celebrate its 9th year in 2022 and figures as of June 2021 show that 16.5% of engineers are women.

To celebrate the day and join the WES in giving women engineers a profile to share their career journey, hopefully encouraging more women and girls to take up engineering careers, we’re sharing the story of Jessie, an Engineering Apprentice at CyDen.

We’ll follow Jessie, who’s just at the start of her apprenticeship as she shares her experience as grows within her early career in e­ngineering.

ABOUT JESSIE

Jessie, 17 from Port Talbot lives at-home with her parents and two dogs, a Goldendoodle and Cockapoo. Jessie finished school last summer after completing her GCSEs in Engineering, ICT and Art alongside the current curriculum. Engineering has been Jessie’s passion since she was young, from spending time in her grandfathers shed with all his tools to always taking her brother’s building toys apart and putting them back together to understand how they work. When Jessie was 8, along with her dad she built a Tamiya model car, a scaled down remote control car. Jessie was determined to do it herself and did, taking 4 months. Now, her dad is trying to keep up with her as they continue to build them!

Jessie’s model car build

It’s clear to see that ever since Jessie was young, she has had an inquisitive and engineering mindset, so, it’s no surprise to hear that she knew engineering was her dream career. Telling us “I knew it was going to have some mechanical aspect, something that allows me to invent or improve.”

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT AN ENGINEERING APPRENTICESHIP THAT EXCITED YOU?

JW: I never enjoyed sitting at a desk in school, so by putting both learning together with a practical approach excited me. I enjoy applying what I’ve learnt as I go in a real-life setting. It allows me to see the big picture and helps me understand why things are done in a certain way.

Earning as I learn allows me to gain much valued work-experience without getting in to loads of student debt or needing to get a second job.

WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY OR WEEK LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

JW: Throughout my apprenticeship I spend time with different colleagues from across the organisation as we work on certain tasks. This gives me a varied insight into all aspects of the role. One week I could be creating packing sequences ready for production, the next building a maintenance log prototype to help us to accurately analyse fault data.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT YOUR ROLE?

JW: I enjoy being able to meet people in various roles across the organisation at all stages of their career and being able to learn from them, allowing me to grow in my role. By doing an apprenticeship, I find it easier to retain what I learn in college as I can apply it each week.

AS YOU COME TO THE END OF YOUR FIRST YEAR OF YOUR APPRENTICESHIP, WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO IN YEAR TWO?

JW: Personally, I’m looking forward to progressing with a sustainability project that I’m working on to help make our processes more efficient and exceed our recycling goals and objectives.

I’m also looking forward to gaining more responsibility, knowing my colleagues can rely on me and trust me to get it done.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHER WOMEN LOOKING TO START A CAREER IN ENGINEERING?

JW: Don’t be afraid of what you think a stereotype of what an engineering role is, it is so varied and there will be something that matches your passion. Whether that’s physical, fault-finding or making decisions on improving processes.

You should consider engineering as a future career if you love problem solving as well as getting hands on technical experience. Engineers get the opportunity to positively influence change each day.

FINALLY, AS WE CELEBRATE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING DAY, WHO DO YOU LOOK UP TO IN THE FIELD?

JW: Nia, she was the first engineer I met in my interview with CyDen. She is similar to me in a way and it’s nice to have someone to look up to as an inspiration within my role.

As the day celebrates innovators and inventors, I also admire Katherine Johnson, a NASA mathematician who played a key role in numerous NASA missions during the Space Race, one of the most famous ones being calculating the trajectory needed to get the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and back.

You can find more about the work that WES as part of International Women in Engineering day do here: https://www.inwed.org.uk/