Today (June 23) is International Women in Engineering Day, where recognition for women working in engineering is the focus.
National Women in Engineering Day was founded in 2014 in the UK by Dawn Bonfield MBE during her time as President of the charity Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to celebrate its 95th anniversary.
WES was founded in 1919 at the end of the First World War, when women who had been employed in technical fields found it difficult, if not impossible, to continue working as engineers. Women were being admitted into the civil service and legal professions, but were being rejected from the engineering industry. WES has, since it was founded, worked to ensure equality for women in engineering.
In 2017, National Women in Engineering Day became international for the first time after attention and support from outside the UK - International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) was born, to enable the celebration of women in engineering to become global.
It’s a chance to promote the amazing work that women engineers across the globe are doing, giving them a profile when they are still hugely under-represented both in training and in the industry – with a higher rate of leaving the industry mid-career than their male colleagues.
Here at North Kent College, our courses are modern, progressive and inclusive for everyone – designed and taught by industry experts - people who have worked in engineering and know the value everyone brings to the roles, regardless of gender.
All of our teaching staff have relevant industrial backgrounds, which provide a high standard of teaching that enables our students to explore a wide range of engineering settings.
We offer courses in Gravesend in General, Electrical/Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, plus at Hadlow, Agricultural Engineering. Our Gravesend facilities include a machine shop with welding and fabrication facilities, alongside well-equipped electronic laboratories and computer suites with computer aided design (Autodesk) software.
Over at Hadlow College, the students get to work on local farmers’ machinery, where they not only fix, but cost up projects too.
Our courses are:
Engineering & Manufacturing
Engineering TechnologyÂ
EngineeringÂ
Agricultural Engineering
Motor Vehicle (Maintenance, technology, motor sport, motorcycle)
Find out more about our engineering courses here.