Why are female students shying away from careers in engineering? There is, so we are constantly reminded, a skills shortage. Yet, according to Ms Josette O'Mullane, the industrial liaison officer with the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT),
least 50 per cent of the female student population never even consider taking the engineering option. Why is this?
In the first place, she says, girls at an early age seem to be diverted from careers in this discipline and towards the caring professions. It means, she adds, that teachers involved in career guidance training will themselves have to be trained so the potential out there for young women is made quite clear.
he time has come to stop stereotyping, Ms O'Mullane says. In the CIT 7 per cent of the huge student population are women, but only 12 per cent of them are taking courses in engineering, and this at a time when companies are paying substantial bounties to staff if they can recruit new, skilled personnel for them.
The figure for science at the CIT is much better, with 48 per cent of females involved, while courses in business and the humanities come out on top with a 65 per cent take-up.
One of the difficulties, says Ms O'Mullane, is that both parents and students are unaware of the opportunities available to those who major in engineering. They have a clean, well-paid environment, good colleagues and interesting challenges.
The average age of the workforce is 30. There is a young outlook and few of the prejudices that worked against women in the past.
And, furthermore, there are exceptional opportunities for ongoing education.
Nationally, she adds, the participation of women in computer courses is 30 per cent. In the CIT the rate is 33 per cent, and in the past five years the top graduates have been women. The CIT is now involved in the Women into Technology Programme, which offers information workshops for parents and teachers.
Its aim is to encourage more female students to stop stereotyping themselves and make the quantum leap into a world only too happy to welcome them.