Wealden MP Nus Ghani has been presented with a STEM Ambassador Gold Award for leading the campaign to get more youngsters into engineering, especially focused on girls.
STEM Ambassadors are volunteers from a wide range of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related jobs and disciplines across the UK. They offer their time and enthusiasm to help bring STEM subjects to life and demonstrate the value of them in life and careers.
As a Minister in the Department for Transport, Nus has responsibility for the Year of Engineering programme. Throughout 2018, Nus has been encouraging more young men and women to get into engineering and other related industries, and recently visited Uckfield based Ashdown AV to discuss how to help Wealden employers take on new apprentices and engineers.
The engineering profession needs 203,000 skilled people each year to 2024 and has an annual shortage of 20,000 graduates. The workforce also faces a major lack of diversity – only 12% of engineers are female and just 8% come from black, Asian or minority ethnic groups.
Nus Ghani, MP for Wealden, said: “The Year of Engineering has been a fantastic programme to encourage more young men and women to study STEM subjects and involved with engineering.
“I was delighted to receive the STEM Ambassador Gold Award, and am proud to have done my bit to sell engineering to the next generation. It’s been a pleasure to promote engineering and STEM subjects to schools and students in Wealden.
“The Year of Engineering is all about giving young people from different backgrounds direct experiences of the creative, innovative world of engineering.
“It’s through these experiences that we can encourage more young people, and in particular more girls, to consider a career that gives them the chance to shape the world around us.”
