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DE&S celebrates its STEM colleagues
from March 2023
by Desider
On 11 February, DE&S celebrated International Day of Women and Girls in Science by highlighting the stories of two colleagues who chose to follow careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
Susie (personal ballistic protection scientist): “I grew up watching Robot Wars and Scrapheap Challenge, and so the STEM seed was planted early! I kept sight of the things I found interesting, and helped narrow down a subject that I wanted to become a specialist in. But that took a long time to decide, so I took every learning opportunity I could get my hands on. I think the biggest challenge in the future is ensuring we have enough engineers and scientists in the right place, with the right funding, and the right experience to approach the problems.”
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Seren (survivability engineer): “I joined DE&S on the Engineering Graduate Scheme and am now a survivability engineer. Defence is a big place, so having a network of people to help find the best opportunities has helped me value of each F-35 to be built, and delivery of the 1,000th fuselage is a great example of how our skilled UK defence industry is playing a critical role in the safety and security of the UK and its allies, whilst also making a considerable contribution to the UK prosperity agenda.”
Cliff Robson, Group Managing Director, BAE Systems’ Air Sector, said: “This is a significant moment for everyone involved in the programme and a testament to the highly-skilled workforce we have in the north-west of England.” develop. When you tell people that you’d like a career in STEM, many people will respond with “Ah! We need more women like you.” What they mean is “Well done! You must have studied hard for that and your career will be very rewarding.” As part of the Soldier, Training and Special Projects team, over the last four years I’ve visited San Diego and been to a body armour conference in Copenhagen, but my highlight was taking a flight in a Chinook helicopter.”
