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A new recruit at shower company Triton is hoping to buck a national trend by encouraging more young female engineers to follow her lead and take up a career in the manufacturing.
With women accounting for just 6% of the engineering workforce in the UK, Emily Golding, who has recently taken up a new role as trainee design engineer at Triton, says the perception of engineering is changing for the better.
Having achieved A-levels in maths, physics and further maths, Golding went on to achieve an advanced apprenticeship qualification in Mechanical Engineering and has since completed the first year of a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in mechanical Engineering. In her new role at Triton, Emily is hoping to take her career to the next level.
She said: “Engineering was an obvious career path for me to take, especially with my strengths in maths and science. Schools are beginning to put more emphasis on the importance of getting girls interested in engineering at a young age and apprenticeships in engineering nowadays are more varied, particularly with the rise of design based qualifications.
“I chose to work at Triton because they are a well respected and recognised brand and the role has lots of opportunity for personal development. I have not been treated differently for being a woman in this field, as I am expected to be just as capable and hands on as my male colleagues and have only been judged on my ability.
“The misconception is that engineering is manual labour and not something many women would like to be involved in which stops young women in particular from exploring it as a career option. In actual fact, the reality couldn’t be more different. There are more apprenticeships available now in different areas of engineering such as mine which was more design based than practical.
“I’m looking forward to building my knowledge of manufacturing and help the Triton team develop new market leading shower designs.”
Lorna Fellowes, managing director at Triton, added: “It’s important that companies recognise the value of female engineers and Triton are always keen to offer ambitious young men and women the chance to work with us if they have the right skill set, motivation and professionalism.
“There has certainly been progression within the engineering industry as a whole and getting girls interested in careers in engineering at an early age can only be a good thing. We look forward to supporting Emily in her role and have every confidence that she will be an asset to Triton.”
