Read: Powerful Futures - UK Power Networks and Essex County Council collaborate to support more women into engineering

Two key Purpose Coalition members - UK Power Networks and Essex County Council - are continuing their fantastic partnership work offering support and opportunity to the people of Essex that need it the most.

The innovative partnership has seen UK Power Networks and Essex County Council work together to support the areas identified in Essex County Council’s levelling up report. By utilising a combination of UK Power Networks’ outreach and volunteering programmes and Essex County Council’s public space and access to community groups across the district, this partnership has been able to support people across all age groups.

Women have long been under-represented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) based roles. With Engineering UK reporting only 16.5 per cent engineering roles taken up by women - compared to 47.7 per cent of the workforce overall. While the number of women in STEM is slowly rising, it will take a proactive and concerted effort by purpose-led public and private sector organisations to redress the balance.

UK Power Networks Learning and Development Manager, Liz Nash, recently ran a session with over 40 local female school students from Colchester Academy, to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day. The interactive day focused on informing the students of the many opportunities and pathways available within UK Power Networks and the engineering sector more widely - breaking down the traditional notions associated with the sector.

The interactive session involved a quiz, educational bingo, live demos, and a Q&A with female employees from across UK Power Networks as well as an in-depth session on the path to net-zero.

UK Power Networks and Essex County Council will continue scaling up their groundbreaking partnership - strategically working to break down the barriers to opportunity that exist for specific groups across Essex, and the UK more widely.

Learning and Development Manager at UK Power Networks, Liz Nash said: “As an Employer of Choice we want to get to a place where our workforce reflects the communities we serve, because traditionally we are a male-dominated industry. Outreach events like Powerful Futures are a great way for us to connect with young people across our patch and start to break down some of the stereotypes and subsequently encourage more females and underrepresented groups to apply to UK Power Networks

Chair of the Purpose Coalition and former Education Secretary, Rt Hon Justine Greening said:

“Our Purpose Coalition partners, UK Power Networks and Essex County Council, are working together to showcase the ground breaking work that they are doing in Essex. By leveraging the local knowledge they have of their communities here they are well-placed not only to create individual opportunities for girls in this area, but to contribute to the development of a more highly skilled and diverse workforce for the future.

“Their work to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day highlights the achievements of women in this vital sector and the impact that their work has had across the world. Hopefully it will also inspire the next generation of girls to encourage them to study STEM subjects and to consider a career in this exciting field.”