February 19, 2013: Jaguar Land Rover is offering female students interested in engineering, technology and manufacturing careers a unique insight into the world of work at the UK's largest luxury automotive manufacturer.
The 'Inspiring Tomorrow's Engineers: Young Women in the Know' course has been developed in partnership with Birmingham Metropolitan College to change outdated perceptions of engineering to encourage more young women to consider engineering and manufacturing careers.
The 28 female students, aged 16-18, will be participating in a week-long programme of events that began on Monday, February 18, at Jaguar Land Rover’s manufacturing, design and engineering sites in Gaydon, Whitley, Solihull and Castle Bromwich. They will meet female apprentices, graduates, engineers and managers to find out about their education and career histories and will spend a day on work experience at the Solihull plant. They will also find out about Jaguar Land Rover’s apprentice and graduate schemes and participate in workshops on job applications, assessment centres and interview techniques.
Bob Joyce, Jaguar Land Rover Engineering Director, said: “Jaguar Land Rover has ambitious plans for growth and it is engineering talent that will develop the products and technologies that appeal to customers in the future. We believe that the success of our global business – and the UK economy – lies in engineering and innovation.
“We offer a wide range of education programmes with the aim of getting young people excited about engineering and crucially, to encourage them to make the right subject choices at GCSE-level and beyond. The ‘Young Women In The Know’ course has been developed to encourage female students to consider engineering careers and we hope some of the students on the course today will join Jaguar Land Rover as engineers in the future.”
Danella Bagnall, Project Planning and Integration Director at Jaguar Land Rover, added: “I started my career as an apprentice 25 years ago which was a great way of continuing education, developing skills, and getting into industry. I am now a senior engineering manager which demonstrates the excellent career progression opportunities available to women in a modern engineering-led business like Jaguar Land Rover.
“It is a very exciting time to join our business. We are investing more than £2 billion a year in research and development and we need talented young people to deliver new technologies, new applications, new approaches and new ideas. I would thoroughly recommend a career in engineering to girls and hope this programme inspires lots more women to become engineers.”
The 'Inspiring Tomorrow's Engineers: Young Women in the Know' course is part of the 'Inspiring Tomorrow's Engineers' (ITE) education programme which Jaguar Land Rover runs across the UK to promote STEM subjects and engineering careers. The ITE programme works closely with schools across the UK to promote learning and engagement with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects and to help create the next generation of engineers and technologists.
Jaguar Land Rover is the only automotive manufacturer in the UK to run Education Business Partnership Centres (EBPCs). There are five EBPCs at each UK site which provide an interactive and practical approach to learning across all stages of the national curriculum. In support of the Government’s STEM Agenda, Jaguar Land Rover has worked with other automotive, engineering and academic organisations to develop three national challenge programmes for schools.
Key achievements
• More than two million young people have participated in Jaguar Land Rover ITE activities since 1999.
• In 2012, more than 200,000 young people directly participated in ITE.
• Jaguar Land Rover contributed £350,000 to education-related programmes in 2012.
• 95 percent of the 5,000 teachers Jaguar Land Rover worked with last year said ITE had increased students’ engagement with STEM.
• In 2012 Jaguar Land Rover sponsored skills and careers shows such as the ‘Big Bang’ and the 'National Skills Show' to promote career opportunities to more than 150,000 students.
• More than 1,800 Jaguar Land Rover employees supported ITE activities in 2012 as part of their professional development.
• Jaguar Land Rover recruited 189 apprentices, 312 graduates and 98 undergraduate industrial placements in 2012 to develop the next generation of engineers, some of whom had previously participated in the ITE programme.