Fundamental rethink needed on attracting future engineers

To mark International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), National Grid Electricity Transmission president Alice Delahunty writes for Utility Week. She sets out her vision of a diversified and future-proofed workforce and the barriers we need to overcome to achieve that.

This year’s INWED theme is Enhanced by Engineering. It celebrates the amazing work that women engineers around the world are doing to support lives and livelihoods every day. In particular, I want to recognise the vital work that many are doing to build a cleaner, greener tomorrow.

Our industry is currently driving a global energy transition to tackle climate change – the challenge of a lifetime. It’s therefore imperative that we continue to foster the inclusion and diversity of people from all backgrounds to make this happen.

We’ve made positive progress on our work to achieve a gender-balanced, diverse, and inclusive energy sector in the UK. More women are progressing into wider leadership and middle-management roles, and there are a growing number of role models in the industry. But there is still much work to do.

Research from Engineering UK has found that the percentage of women working in engineering and technology occupations dropped from 16.5% in 2022 to 15.7% in 2023, representing a fall of 38,000 women. This is driven by a fall of 66,000 women between the ages of 35 to 64.  Representation of women in the top leadership of the UK’s major energy companies is also stagnating  – suggesting women often find challenges in their careers at middle-management level and are not being retained.

Equally worryingly, there are concerns that the gender gap is widening amongst young people, and we are not attracting enough girls into the future engineering workforce. A survey of more than 7,000 young people in England last year found that only 12% of girls say being an engineer fits well with who they are, and just 16% of girls think an engineering career is suitable for them.

We need to fundamentally rethink how we attract and educate future engineers, and stimulate interest in engineering careers by demonstrating their diversity, inclusivity, richness and depth. This is part of the great work the Royal Academy of Engineering are doing to define a vision of the knowledge, skills and behaviours engineers will need to meet the global challenges of the 21st century. As a fellow of the academy, I am very passionate about driving this project forward.

We must also ensure our organisations provide enough support, development and training to engineers from all backgrounds. At National Grid, our people are the driving force behind our work. We play an integral role in decarbonising the UK’s energy system – delivering the largest overhaul of the electricity grid since its inception, and we’re working hard to connect new clean energy projects quickly. A fundamental step-change is required to build key infrastructure at the scale and pace needed to meet power sector decarbonisation targets. Engineers with multi-disciplinary, cross-cutting skillsets will continue to be at the heart of reinventing our industry.

We invest in attracting and retaining an inclusive and diverse workforce and we have learning and development opportunities available for women and diverse colleagues to enhance their skills, advance their careers, and foster inclusion and belonging.

We are also actively promoting STEM careers and education for young women and girls. Our £1.8 million partnership with social enterprise Connectr has provided over 400 girls aged 17-18 with work experience opportunities, with 65% of work experience students over the three years of the programme identifying as female. The programme has engaged over 100,000 students across South London, providing students with the tools to pursue green and STEM-based careers, as part of our ongoing commitment to help the UK plug its green skills gap and inspire the next generation of STEM leaders.

We must do more as a sector to improve female representation, and to attract, hire and retain people from diverse backgrounds more broadly. We need a range of different skills, perspectives, and ideas to drive the innovation required to meet net zero – and ensure our engineering workforce is reflective of the communities we serve. Our clean energy future depends on it.