WISE News | WISE CEO - Helen Wollaston | August 2017 Blog

​One of the speakers sharing the platform with me at an event last month asked me why girls don’t choose engineering and technology.

4 August 2017

It is a combination of factors of course, which require intervention on different levels. Girls studying physics, maths and computing at A level are still very much in a minority. We can nurture their interest by giving them an opportunity to spend time with other girls who enjoy these subjects and to meet women like them using their qualifications to do exciting and fulfilling jobs.

This months feature photos (above) show an early WISE residential for 6^th form girls at Essex University. Founder of WISE, Beryl Platt, was one of the speakers. We’d love to know what happened to those girls so that we can share your stories.

Should we re-instate WISE residentials? Let us know if you can help - Find out how here

Annette Williams, another leading light of the campaign, who passed away last month, recognised that inspiring girls to choose engineering is not enough. Annette pioneered a holistic approach, addressing retention and progression of women in STEM through joint interventions in the classroom, the workplace and professional institutions. It is this classroom to board room approach which WISE advocates today as the way to achieve our mission of gender balance in science, technology and engineering, for the benefit of all.
Read more about Annette here