AERTEC's Inspiring Girls in Engineering initiative has been included in the platform Women in Transport of the European Commission for Mobility and Transport. This project aims at the implementation of actions for the improvement of educational and research opportunities in the field of transport in Europe, in order to meet future professional needs in the labour market, especially for women. In this context, much effort has been made to focus the agenda on the promotion of women's employment, which currently accounts for only 22% of the total number of active jobs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines.
AERTEC's initiative, whose main objective is the integration of women in STEM disciplines, will serve as a model of success.
The activity has been running since 2016 at AERTEC, and the results have been very significant. Now it is a question of extend the experience gained to other countries through the EU Transport Commission.
The main objectives of this project are to establish professional role models young students, facilitate access to vocational guidance with the help of gender perspective, The aim is to link young female students with mentoring opportunities and to promote a positive image of women in STEM careers and occupations through the media.
In this sense, the initiative that AERTEC has already launched and whose model will be extended to other European countries shows our young people that engineering is a «teamwork» effort. To this end, several teams are created combining junior and senior engineers, men and women... and the different activities in the company are explained to them as architects, aeronautical, mechanical, electrical, civil and telecommunications engineers... all of them specialised in the aviation industry.
After the presentations, a visit is made to the different departments of the company to show them the same project from different engineering points of view. The students will have a hands-on experience in the different departments with real-life projects. The grand finale is the IT department, where they play with augmented reality glasses that allow them to see, as if they were on the real site, what they have been designing as «engineers».
Before and after the visits, a small survey is carried out among the participants to find out what they want to study at the university. Analysing the answers, it can be seen that there are always those who change their opinion favourably towards engineering studies after the visits.
AERTEC's initiative is combined with other initiatives such as “Generate STEM”.” (a forum for analysis between companies, educational centres and universities to increase the interest of female students in technical careers) and “Women for Africa” (collaboration with the Women for Africa Foundation for the development of a coaching programme where women workers at the Andalusia Technology Park train other women on leadership, empowerment, women in the workplace and technology).
According to Ana Pérez, airport planning expert at AERTEC, “the main message we are conveying is that engineering is about teamwork, and that any of the young people, regardless of gender, could work in aviation and the aviation industry if they really like it. Our main goal is to ensure that students learn this message.
Among the objectives of the programme, 30% of girls in engineering careers is being targeted related to transport: civil engineer, aeronautical engineer ... by 2030, thereby seeking to reduce gender discrimination and advance gender equality in society.
Several European Union countries have already shown their interest in this initiative launched by AERTEC and, once it has been sponsored by the European Commission's Transport Committee, it will begin to be disseminated and implemented in other countries.
For more information, please visit European Commission / Mobility and Transport >> Inpiring Girls in Engineering
