Are girls showing more interest in STEM careers and engineering in particular?

I attended the finals of our Go4SET scheme in Scotland last week. It was held at the Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, a futuristic building exhibiting the history of the earth’s geological formations, right next to the Scottish Parliament. The event was a great success and we were visited by MPs, MSPs and the Minister for Science. The standard of all the projects was remarkably high – these teams of 13/14 year olds already being regional winners. The overall winner was a team of girls from Boclair Academy who were mentored by the company ScienceSoft. Their project focused on renewable energies for an “Eco-hotel” and the research and understanding that they had developed as well as their model demonstrated very high commitment and motivation as well as an interest in the subject matter, remembering always that this was extra to their daily class work. This should give us confidence that our future is in good hands – we just need to provide these types of experiences to many more young people.

It was really encouraging to see that the winning team was a team of girls. We are very encouraged to find that >50% of our Go4SET participants are girls. We know from the surveys we conduct that their perceptions of engineering and STEM in general change positively whilst undertaking this type of activity where they interface with industry role models and are able to develop their skills in tackling real issues. Above all the most noticeable change is in their confidence. Hopefully this will continue through to their choice of subjects and career paths in the sixth form and beyond, which is traditionally where the “drop-off” occurs.

This is not the only example. Our very successful Headstart programme has hit a milestone – breaking through the 40% girls mark to hit 42% this year. Recalling that this is a sixth form programme (year 12) this is quite an achievement, and is driven by a growing interest from girls. What is particularly encouraging, and exciting, is that we are seeing a pull through from our girls only Inspire courses (year 11), with roughly two thirds going on to a Headstart course. We know from our evaluations and tracking that 86% of Headstart students go on to a STEM role as their first job.

We have also been encouraged to learn that via a survey of Engineering Education Scheme alumni that >90% of the girls participating had gone on to STEM jobs as their first step after studying.

More evidence of a shift? Our new Industrial Cadets initiative which is a standard for employer engagement with young people and includes a range of activity types including work experience is currently running at 50/50 girls/boys. It is too early to measure the impact, but if our previous experience is repeated then the conversion rate will be equally high; providing that the employers and schools involved (as well as the young people themselves) have further follow on opportunities to keep developing their interests, skills and careers awareness.

The programmes that we run in EDT are a contribution to the larger picture, one in which we need to see many more employers engaging with young people locally to provide them with real life hands-on experiences, and one in which we need to continue creating positive stereotypes for parents and teachers to tap into. Clearly we still have a long way to go, remaining a long way behind other OECD countries when it comes to girls going in to engineering.  However, I wonder whether we are starting to see the tide turning?