To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning what steps his Department is taking to address gender disparity in the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Services sector.

I recognise that gender imbalance is a key issue across many sectors, including Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Services and as a result, there are a number of things my Department has been doing to address this.

Since November 2012, my Department has been funding the post of STEM Business Co-Ordinator to support the STEM Business Subgroup in their task of implementing the recommendations of the Success through STEM Strategy, one of which is to address the issue of gender bias.

To help with this and to promote STEM subjects and careers among females, a report was published in November 2013 entitled “Gender Imbalance – Reaping the Gender Dividend in STEM”. The report contains good practice guidelines and a Northern Ireland STEM CEO Charter.

The Equality Commission and STEM Business Subgroup launched a STEM equality charter in June 2014. Companies are urged to sign up to this charter to demonstrate their commitment to improving gender imbalance in their business.

It should be noted that to date, 24 employers have signed up to the STEM Employers Equality Network run by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. This Network has been set up to support the charter and implement good practice and held its first meeting on 25 September 2014. A good practice manual has been agreed and published on the Equality Commission website.

Also in 2012, I established the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Services Working Group to consider how issues related to skills in this sector can be addressed. This Group, which I chair, brings together government, academia and local employers to identify specific skills needs and develop appropriate solutions through an agreed Action Plan.

I launched the Action Plan for this sector in April 2014 with actions designed to enhance the skills of the workforce, maximise employment opportunities and give the local industry a competitive edge in the global marketplace.

One of the areas identified for action was the low number of females working in the sector. My officials have worked closely with the STEM Business Co-Ordinator to develop and implement a number of activities to address the gender imbalance in the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Services industry. For example:

In September I launched the concept of industry-led STEM scholarships in the fields of Computing and Engineering to attract and retain top graduate talent. The Computing and Engineering Scholarship Programme is open to both genders and there will be up to a maximum of 40 students undertaking a STEM scholarship (20 in Computing and 20 in Engineering). Applications are particularly welcome from females.

A ‘Leaders in Industry’ programme for the sector is being developed with Queens University Belfast for possible inclusion on my Departments Management and Leadership Development suite of programmes. Applications from females will be particularly welcome.

A project titled ‘Upskills to compete’ has been funded by my Department to develop potential female workers to progress their careers from 20 SMEs and four larger companies starting in April 2014.This will involve the production of 24 employer STEM diversity plans, ten role models and ten case studies. It will promote STEM subjects to 1000 schoolgirls showcasing the existing opportunities in a career in the sector by 31 March 2015. The first cohort to undertake the Career Advance Progression four day programme is underway with the 2nd cohort due to commence later this month.

My Department’s industry partners on the Working Group have completed a benchmarking survey to determine perceptions and awareness levels of career opportunities in the industry among teachers, parents and pupils. A bespoke and targeted sector attractiveness strategy which aims to inform young people and their key influencers about the wide range of quality career options that are available across the sector has been developed and a number of initiatives are underway such as building relationships between industry and local education providers.

In partnership with Bombardier and Belfast Metropolitan College, my Department funded an Aerospace Summer School to promote the STEM agenda within an area of strategic importance to the local economy. 30 young people, aged 16 to 24 participated in this programme which engaged students in hands-on activities which demonstrate the science, technology and engineering in the world of flight and is designed to match their needs and inspire participants to consider entry level jobs in Aero Technology in the sector. There was a very strong female participation.

My Department funded a visit of 23 of Northern Ireland’s top STEM students and apprentices (which included a strong female representation) to attend ‘Futures Day’ at Farnborough International Airshow in July. This included the NI Rocket Challenge winners Rainey Endowed School (a co-ed grammer school) and the Group is working towards expanding this particular initiative to include more schools from seven in 2014 to fourteen in 2015.

The UK Aerospace Youth Rocketry Challenge will be expanded to include more schools and raise the profile of this initiative. There were seven schools involved in 2014 and it is hoped this will double to fourteen in 2015. This initiative will ensure that more female pupils become aware of various aspects of the sector and crucially gain practical experience which may influence their career choices.

There is a programme of STEM activities currently being delivered in primary schools by Sentinus via their contract with the Department of Education. As the largest STEM outreach provider in Northern Ireland for schools and young people, Sentinus aims to increase awareness and interest in engineering. The Department of Education is an active member of the Working Group.

To specifically raise the profile of the sector amongst pupils at Year 8 and beyond the Working Group aims to utilise existing Ambassador networks and intends that oversee 60 schools visited by Ambassadors from the sector by March 2016. Ambassadors are put forward by employers because of their ability to communicate with and “sell” the sector to young people.

In July 2014, my Department arranged for eight students from further education colleges in Northern Ireland to attend a two week STEM summer camp at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts in. Four of the eight students who attended the camp were female and studied the ‘Women’s Leadership Academy’ strand of the FRONTIERS programme.

I believe this shows that my Department through the work of the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Services Working Group is actively addressing the issue of gender imbalance and I trust this reply reassures you that there is and will continue to be a strong focus on gender disparity in this sector.

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