NEW College Pontefract’s physics and maths departments are inspiring girls to go into science and maths related fields. On Tuesday around 60 Year 10 girls from local high schools including Outwood Grange and The Kings’ School heard inspiring stories from Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) careers.
Speakers included researchers in Tissue Engineering and Quantum Cryptography from Leeds University, and a Pensions Actuary from Deloitte. The aim of the event was to get more girls to take science and maths subjects at A Level, and increase the gender balance in the UK’s STEM workforce.
Currently, the percentage of women in STEM careers in the UK is 13% according to WISE (Women in Science and Engineering). Their aim is to increase this to 30% by 2020.
NEW College students, Laura Varley and Sophie Tawn are both on their way to increasing the number of women in STEM, having both secured interviews at top universities. Laura wants to study engineering at Oxford University and Sophie has an interview at Cambridge University to study physics.
Ned Prideaux, Head of Physics, said: “We’re chuffed that these two talented young women will get the chance to show the best universities quite how good they are.”
