One of the most senior figures in the global automotive sector and a teenage apprentice who is making her first steps in engineering were among the guests at the December CW Champions Event.
The event was live streamed from the Government-funded UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) in Coventry.
Speakers included Linda Jackson, who grew up in Coventry and started out in the accounts department of Jaguar in 1977, and who is now European Vice-President for Brand Portfolio Development for Groupe PSA, after six years in charge of Citroën, and, at the other end of her career, 19-year-old Omeah Hancox, who graduated from the WMG Academy for Young Engineers before becoming an Apprentice Vehicle Technician for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
Omeah told the event that she switched from an all-girls’ school to the WMG Academy after deciding she wanted to follow her granddad and dad into the car industry, a decision which has set her on a mission to promote engineering as a career option for more young women.
Omeah said: “When it came to taking my GCSEs engineering wasn’t an option at the school I was at, but just down the road was this new engineering academy and I knew that’s where I wanted to go.
“I went from an all-girls’ school to one that was 80 per cent boys. Engineering is still male-dominated, because it’s been stereotyped as a man’s job, but I feel young women aren’t given the opportunities to understand what the term engineering means.
“That frustrates me because it’s not all about workshops and cars. I tell them that their phone was engineered; their handbag was engineered; everything we use is engineered by someone.”
Also among the speakers were Jeff Pratt, Managing Director of the hosts the UKBIC, and Phil Warner, Vice-President of Art for Mediatonic, one of the largest independent studios in the UK which has recently opened an office in the 1 Mill St co-working development in Leamington.