Food and Drink Manufacturers Celebrate National Women in Engineering Day
23 June 2015
Food and Drink Manufacturers Celebrate National Women in Engineering Day
To highlight the need for more female engineers in the food and drink industry, the Food and Drink Federation is today supporting National Women in Engineering Day – a day set aside to raise the profile and celebrate the achievements of women in engineering.
Coordinated by the Women's Engineering Society (WES), the day exists to change attitudes associated with engineering as a male profession and encourage all industries to support the cause. With 20% of food and drink businesses reporting skills gaps, particularly in science and engineering roles, and women being under-represented in our sector, (35% of the workforce versus an all industries average of 49%), manufacturers are flying the flag higher than ever to attract highly skilled, talented women to meet future demand.
Angela Coleshill, Director of Competitiveness at FDF, said: “FDF's continued support of incentives such as National Women in Engineering Day, the Government founded Your Life campaign and the creation of our own Women into STEM pledge, are all aimed at attracting more women into this sector. Science and engineering skills are required to improve manufacturing processes and retain competitiveness but we also offer a broad range of careers in disciplines such as HR, purchasing and marketing.
“In September 2014 we launched the first Food Engineering Master's degree at Sheffield Hallam University and it would be fantastic if we could raise the 15% average of female UK undergraduate engineering admissions as compared to 85% of male admissions. Recruiting more highly skilled women is vital to increasing their presence in the boardroom.“
Supporting the day, Sheffield Hallam University's (SHU's) course leader for Food Engineering, Andy Rawsthorne, will be attending an event organised by Rosebery School in Surrey to promote food engineering as a career to female pupils. Andy will provide information on SHU's exciting programme of food engineering progression routes, helping to inspire the next generation of engineers and stimulate interest in food and drink sector careers.
See what female engineers in the food and drink industry are saying:
25-year-old Chandni Chavda, an Engineering Graduate at Nestlé UK & Ireland, believes engineering is too male-dominated: “I believe that it is very important that women consider this career path. Engineering tends to be mainly male dominated and many people feel it is biased towards them. Working in this environment has been interesting and also challenging at times, however, there are so many opportunities for progression and everyone is very supportive and respectful. I feel that women will bring a different approach to solving problems and it always better having a diverse team with new opinions and thoughts.“
PepsiCo Site Leader Tracey Forster hopes to create greater diversity within the industry: “I am proud to say that we have some great female STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) ambassadors within our business, and a number of initiatives in place to encourage more female students into engineering and manufacturing roles. Yet as a company we are ambitious to do more and it is a personal ambition of mine to do whatever I can to ensure greater diversity in the food and drink industry, as well as the wider engineering profession.“
United Biscuits Process Engineer Naidene Samuel believes engineering would benefit from an equal representation of both genders: “Women are underrepresented in engineering, which I think is a shame. We can often offer a different perspective than our male counterparts and workplaces thrive when there is a good representation of both genders. People need to overcome any preconceived notions about working as an engineer. It is not a 'man's job' and the majority of the gender barriers that existed in the past are quickly disappearing.“
Notes for editors:
- The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) is the voice of the food and drink manufacturing industry – the UK's largest manufacturing sector. For more information about FDF and the industry we represent visit: www.fdf.org.uk
- Food and drink is the UK's largest manufacturing sector employing around 400,000 people in a huge variety of roles. By 2020 the industry anticipates that it will need over 170,300 new recruits to help it meet growing demand and skills shortages in areas such as engineering. The industry is addressing this through its careers campaign Taste Success and through raising food and drink's profile at events
- Taste Success - A Future in Food is an industry-led campaign to engage with young people, parents, teachers and careers advisors to highlight the wide range of exciting job opportunities available in highly skilled and well-paid professions such as engineering. For further information please visit: www.tastesuccess.co.uk
- For more information on MEng Food Engineering and BEng Food Engineering courses at Sheffield Hallam University please visit MEng Food Engineering and BEng Food Engineering Sheffield Hallam University course pages
- The MEng Food Engineering course at Sheffield Hallam University has been developed by Graduate Excellence, a partnership between the Food and Drink Federation, the National Skills Academy for Food & Drink and Sheffield Hallam University.
- Sheffield Hallam University is one of the UK's largest universities with more than 36,000 students, 27,000 of which are undergraduates. The University has the fourth highest number of postgraduate taught students in the UK and runs approximately 580 different courses. The University is England's largest provider of courses that involve work placements (such as a year in industry) and 91 per cent of the University's graduates are in work or further study six months after graduation.
- The new world-class National Centre of Excellence aims to support industry growth through helping the sector to improve manufacturing capability, provide engineering solutions for energy and waste efficiencies, deliver packaging innovations through leading-edge technology and skills solutions to inspire the next generation of food engineers.
For More Information and images, please contact:
Alexandra Crisp alexandra.crisp@fdf.org.uk 020 7420 7120
Anna Taylor anna.taylor@fdf.org.uk 020 7420 7118
