Engineers and Technicians at HMS Sultan recently came together to show their support for International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) 2017.
INWED is an annual festival developed and coordinated by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to celebrate the achievements of women in engineering and inspire younger generations.
Set up in 2014 as a UK-wide event – but now international. It takes place on 23 June: the anniversary of the foundation of the Women’s Engineering Society in 1919.
As the home of the Defence College of Technical Training’s Defence School of Marine Engineering (DSMarE) and the Royal Naval Air Engineering and Survival School (RNAESS), HMS Sultan’s primary function is to supply the Fleet with engineering Officers and Ratings of the highest standard.
To show their support for INWED staff and trainees within the RNAESS have been sharing what being in engineering means to them.
Air Engineering Technician(AET) Caitlin Rann, 21, said, “I wanted to travel and wanted a stable career. After doing work experience at RNAS Yeovilton, visiting one of the hangars and speaking with one of the engineers, I decided that Air Engineering was something I wanted to do.”
“Once I’ve finished my training I will be working on refuelling and servicing Service aircraft. I’m hoping that I can get to work on Wildcat Helicopters and that I can work my way up the ranks and get more qualifications.”
AET Shannon Howe, 22, said, “Before I joined I was a receptionist in a leisure centre and now I get to service helicopters. Now I’m focused on gaining experience and hopefully one day I will be able to go on, gain my engineering degree and walk through the gates of Dartmouth to become an Officer.”
AET Chloe Waterson, 20, said, “I’ve always been fascinated by aircraft and engineering, so this way I get the best of both worlds. I love the fact that I will get to work on aircraft not just on the land, but anywhere at sea or in the desert and this makes it better than any other engineering job.”
“I expected it to be a little bit harder being a girl but it’s not, there’s a huge amount of girls joining and going into engineering and we’re just as capable as the boys.”
Training Head, Lieutenant Commander Marie-Claire Bartlett said, “As a female in engineering we’ve always been in the minority and actually it’s about encouraging females and girls at school to choose the right subjects. To recognise that they too can do this kind of job, if this is what they want to choose and recognise that every avenue is open to them and that just because of their sex it doesn’t make a difference.”
“Here within the RNAESS, we stand shoulder to shoulder with our male colleagues and we all play an integral part in the delivery of training the Royal Navy’s current and future Air Engineers and Survival Equipment technicians. Each of us has front line engineering experience across a full range of platforms and environments, which we call upon as we now train some 400 students at any one time.”
