Celebrating International Women in Engineering Day at Hydro Aluminium

28th June 2022
Girls from Bedwas High School have celebrated ‘International Women in Engineering Day’ at a special Not Just For Boys event at Hydro Aluminium in Caerphilly.

Run by Chwarae Teg, Not Just for Boys is designed to help girls find out more about different careers that might not be traditionally thought of as options for women, before they choose their GCSE subjects.

By experiencing a day in the life at Hydro Aluminium they have been able to discover the wide range of careers available in the engineering industry.

The pupils took a tour of the workplace at Hydro Aluminium, which showcased the variety of roles available and had the opportunity to have a go at exciting try-a-trade activities and workshops across the engineering sector.

Role models within Hydro shared their career journeys through a Q&A session which wrapped up the event, enabling the girls to find out about the various roles within engineering and how to access them through apprenticeships and other qualification routes.

Student responses included:

“It’s been really good and really inspiring. It’s opened up my eyes to other opportunities”

“I now realise that there is much more to engineering and many more types of jobs within engineering than I ever realised before today.”

At Chwarae Teg we want to show girls that their career aspirations should not be limited by gender, so we were delighted to be working with the leading industrial company Hydro Aluminium and the wonderful students of Bedwas High School to communicate this message and demonstrate that they CAN DO IT.

“Our own research has shown that 87% of girls feel they are pigeonholed into stereotyped career options. Also there are surveys which show that only 11% of the UK’s engineering workforce is female - the lowest percentage in Europe.

“These issues are vital to tackle, particularly as STEM industries are high growth sectors, with higher pay and better opportunities for progression, so girls need to know they are Not Just For Boys!
Emma Tamplin
Collaboration Manager, Chwarae Teg

It’s vital we attract more women to the positions at our workplace and into the industry as a whole. At Hydro we have a clear focus on doing just that and we work hard to ensure women have a positive experience with us and learn about the career journeys that are available to them.

"Having the pupils here enabled us to really demonstrate the variety that is available, and I hope it has made them aware of that and inspired them to consider a career in STEM.
Lara Baldwin
HR Business Partner, Hydro Aluminium UK Ltd