WCC launches 'Warwickshire Women in Engineering 2025' campaign

“This is an important campaign which will support the great work that is already underway at many organisations to encourage more women to bring their skills into the engineering sector in all its forms."

Warwickshire County Council today launches its campaign ‘Warwickshire Women in Engineering 2025.’ This new initiative aims to help attract and encourage the skills of women of all ages into the engineering sector. 

As industries compete to secure the right workforce to become more productive and profitable, Invest Warwickshire, Warwickshire Engineering Design Services, Warwickshire Careers Hub and Warwickshire Skills Hub are coming together to support major local and national partners in a drive to get more women of all ages into the engineering sector. 

This campaign includes encouraging more young women to take up STEM and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) subjects, but also to encourage working age people to look into the exciting range of well-paid career opportunities in this most creative of sectors. 

“We recognise that there are organisations in Warwickshire and elsewhere that actively encourage and support women in engineering,” said Victoria Geffert, Principal Engineer at Warwickshire County Council. “We wanted to capture and celebrate this through our ‘Warwickshire Women in Engineering 2025 campaign.” 

International Women in Engineering Day (INWED25) will be celebrated on June 23rd and is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate engineering roles of all kinds. In April, Autocar magazine will host its annual ‘Great Women in Automotive,’ which sees many Warwickshire-based women nominated every year. Later in the year, in October, the games industry will come together to celebrate Women in Games. 

First up though, next month, is National Apprenticeship Week (February 10 - 16), an ideal time to encourage people of all ages to consider a wide range of careers, including engineering. Then in March comes National Careers Week and another opportunity for young people to consider the range of opportunities available in engineering. 

Our campaign to promote engineering covers the subject in the broadest context. It includes civil engineering for construction and infrastructure; automotive engineering in the design and development and service of vehicles and manufacturing; and the creation and development of software for business and video games for entertainment. 

There is much talk about the new challenges and opportunities opening up with AI. Which high value sectors will grow the global economy? From where will the interesting, well-paid, secure employment come in the future? 

Global strategy consultants McKinsey & Company recently looked in detail at which sectors are set to grow most by 2040. The news is good for the economy of Warwickshire. The county ranks highly in ten of their top 18 'Arenas of Tomorrow.' They estimate that those 18 are set to grow from $7trn in revenue to up to $48trn over the next 15 years. 

Important subsectors listed include EVs, batteries, shared autonomous vehicles, air-mobility, robotics, digital ads, cyber software and videogames. These are all sectors where STEM and STEAM will properly equip those seeking to work in those industries. 

Coventry & Warwickshire already has significant existing strength and impact with clusters, sites and facilities like Silicon Spa, Immersive Creative Launchpad, Greenpower Park, MIRA Technology Park, WMG, University of Warwick, UKBIC, the MTC - Manufacturing Technology Centre and Coventry University along with major local OEMs and brands like Aston Martin Lagonda, BMW, EDF Arabelle Solutions, GE Verona, HS2, JLR, Morgan Sindall, Polestar, Rolls Royce Aerospace, SEGA and Ubisoft. 

Over the coming months, we will meet some inspirational women from the construction, video games and automotive industry through interviews and features. We will be celebrating these initiatives on social media and in our business newsletter Warwickshire Means Business.  

Martin Watson, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Economy, said: “This is an important campaign which will support the great work that is already underway at many organisations to encourage more women to bring their skills into the engineering sector in all its forms. 

“Our teams at Warwickshire County Council, with their great energy, experience and contacts across the sector, will work with partners to help open up more opportunities in engineering for women of all ages.”