Renishaw engineer shortlisted for Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards
A female engineer who joined Renishaw as an apprentice aged just 16 has been shortlisted for a prestigious engineering industry award, which aims to banish outdated engineering stereotypes and help change the perception that engineering is only a career for men.
Lucy Ackland (26), a project manager in Renishaw's Additive Manufacturing Products Division working on the company's next generation of metal 3D printing machines, has been shortlisted for the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Young Woman of the Year Awards.
She started her career as a mechanical engineering apprentice and has progressed through a variety of roles whilst being supported by Renishaw to achieve further engineering qualifications on a day release basis. In 2012 she achieved a first class honours degree in mechanical and manufacturing engineering from the University of South Wales, and in 2014 she was appointed a Board member of the charity Young Engineers.
The IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards aim to find female role models to help address the UK science and engineering skills crisis. Lucy said: "I am thrilled to have made it this far in a competition that includes so many brilliant high achieving females.
"At the age of 13 I was inspired to become an engineer and despite some opposition from those who felt that I should follow a more academic route, I chose to apply for an apprenticeship. I hope that my progress and academic achievements since then can similarly help to inspire other young people to consider engineering as an attractive career option."
Women currently represent only 6 per cent of the engineering workforce in the UK (source: 2014 IET Skills Survey), the lowest percentage in Europe.
Michelle Richmond, IET Director of Membership, and a former YWE winner, said: "The lack of women in engineering is a huge problem for this country, contributing to skills shortages which threaten the economy. It also means that women are missing out on interesting and rewarding careers.
"The difficulty in attracting women into engineering is down to a combination of things: from the careers advice girls are given in schools, to schools not instilling girls with the confidence to opt for science and maths at A-level, through to employers needing to do more to make their approach to recruitment and retention more female friendly."
"It's also a result of the lack of inspirational engineering role models for girls - which is where our Young Woman Engineer of the Year winners can play a vital role by encouraging and inspiring more young girls to become engineers."
The winner will be announced at the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards ceremony on 10 December in central London.
Renishaw
Other News from Renishaw
Latest news about Editorial features
- Bleak house, but great expectations
- The debate on democracy – to the moon and back
- Smart factories will boost global economy
- Employee welfare is top priority for Flame Hardeners
- Deferred gratification or meaningless promises?
- Proof again that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be?
- The vinyl revival in an increasingly digital world
- Star Trek and the virtuous circle of product innovation
- Expanding our thinking on the sharing economy
- A musical take on the benefits of integration
- Websites could and should be so much more
- Chasing the market when you’re in the middle ground
- Renishaw supports Colston Hall state of the art education suite
- Your brand, your promise
- Brexit, the barman and the boiled egg
- International consumers prepared to pay up to 22% more for British goods
- Impact of Carillion dwarfs the Brexit and Trump effects
- Is good design just a question of perspective?
- ABB wins $130 million power order in the UK
- Across Europe, the only constant is change
- Defining the challenges for a low carbon future
- Infrastructure challenge for an all-battery future
- Cheeseburger lessons for UK manufacturing
- With demonisation, the devil is in the detail
- Cinderella, pancetta, and the great Brexit debate
- Data is the 21st century industrial battleground
- Arsene Wenger and the future of the EU
- UK SMEs confident about growth prospects
- Star Wars lessons for product development
- Well, I never saw that one coming
- Energy expert IDEC joins COPA-DATA Partner Community
- Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
- To the infinitesimally small, and all the way back
- Is the rise of storage units costing us dear?
- Just how green is a new green product?
- Total value of UK goods exports to reach £445bn in 2026
- Is there another sad passing still to come?
- Understanding the true impact of Brexit
- The importance of good communications
- Manufacturers call for a support programme to help alleviate lack of skilled labour
- Growth can only be maintained if we address skills shortage
- RS helps to fast track the engineers of the future
- Southern Manufacturing returns to Farnborough
- Southern Manufacturing returns to Farnborough
- Unmade in China: hidden truth about China’s economic miracle
- From the local bus to the global adventure...
- The gap between R&D and production
- Star GB reveals details of Autumn Open House
- Bridging the 'valley of death' between research and bringing products to market
- Emissions trading scheme could cost UK steel sector over £300 million a year
- New annual report out today lifts the lid on UK manufacturing
- The lobster, the cat and the wardrobe
- Britain 'must invest in design skills' to drive forward in Industry 4.0, manufacturing experts warn
- Game of Thrones and a lesson for engineers
- Mechanical engineers back UK staying in the EU
- Big investment boost for the UK's automotive industry
- Manufacturing growth is going steady, says the CBI
- The plastic dream factory
- New website helps UK small businesses navigate funding maze
- Automotive industrial partnership on the starting grid
- Sales and investment rise as SMEs defy slowdown
- Remanufacturing industry offers £5.6 billion opportunity for UK plc
- Britain on the cusp of fourth industrial revolution
- Manufacturing growth picks up speed
- Zen and the art of jimmying out the backup battery
- 3D printing service for bespoke fasteners
- Renishaw's EVO Project - additive manufacturing for industrial use
- RS Components augments rapid-prototyping product portfolio with new Ultimaker 2 3D printer
- Tapeswitch uses 3D printing for bespoke parts production
- TR Fastenings invests in 3D printing
- Web tool creates 3D gripper jaws at push of a button
- The perils of riding the change curve
- Big in Japan
- Crowd funding the UK's space industry...
- Dad's Army, and the art of recycling...
- Personal protection
- Emerging exports in emerging Europe
- New Lean Workshop Group seminars announced for October
- Connecting with our cousins across the Commonwealth
- UK industry wasting millions as cost of poor maintenance mounts up
- UK now a competitive centre for manufacturing
- Go from zero to exporting hero
- You've made your bed, now you have to lay in it...
- Small businesses helpless in the face of cybercrime
- Manufacturers gear up for 'Made in the UK'
- UK businesses losing up to a third of customers due to poor service
- £2m up for grabs for the UK's most innovative engineering and manufacturing SMEs
- UK economy stabilises in Q2 following surge in first quarter
- Firm growth in manufacturing
- New campaign to boost female engineer numbers
- £30 million fund to address engineering skills shortage
- Growth returns to the market for geared products
- Forget sun, sea and sand. Think trade, commerce and exports
- Fast moving consumer goods in a fast moving global market
- Unlocking savings in MRO
- Small business? Become a big business exporter
- Where there's manufacturing, there's a way
- UKTI funding for companies looking to export
- Cosworth reveals programme to create Centre of Excellence for niche manufacturing
- Growth in UK manufacturing leads to employment increase, says KPMG
- Counterfeit materials lead to Aston Martin recall
- Rally success for E-Wheel Drive concept car
- UK engineers concerned about government's ability to secure the future of their industry
- Smart manufacturing will drive demand for M2M communication
- UK manufacturing sets off on a high in 2014, says KPMG
- Increased orders for manufacturing industry offers opportunity for investment
- Government must cut the red tape affecting small businesses
- New CBI indicator reveals fastest pace of growth since 2007
- Government must do more to back British innovation
- Carbon Trust calls for businesses to adapt or die
- Bronze skies and Industry 4.0
- Space 1999 and the lack of UK innovation...
- Embrace manufacturing convergence to optimise plant agility
- UK manufacturing growth surges
- Eurozone pulling out of recession
- Manufacturing boost as companies invest
- Export opportunities in the Turkish market
- SME confidence at a 12 month high
- Manufacturing returning to the UK
- Manufacuring production and new orders expand in December
- Confidence boost for UK manufacturing
