Defence

Babcock's Women in Manufacturing event kickstarts 2025 apprenticeship drive

Posted 2 January 2025

Babcock has launched a Women in Manufacturing event to showcase some of the incredible career opportunities the sector can offer young people and to kickstart its 2025 apprenticeship programme at its Bristol facilities.

Image courtesy Babcock

The event was aimed at local schools and was oversubscribed with over 50 girls attending from schools including SGS Berkeley Green University Technical College and Bristol Brunel Academy and plans are already underway for a bigger event in 2025.

The event coincides with Babcock’s new apprenticeship drive and was a chance to showcase the range of manufacturing and engineering design, assembly and build that takes place at Babcock’s Ashton Vale site in Bristol site. Pupils got the chance to experience digital technology demos and speak to other female engineers and apprentices working there.

Pupils also got the chance to test some augmented reality welding machines, which is increasingly used in the manufacturing field to reduce costs and increase sustainability by reducing waste and excess materials. They also met with directors and chief engineers and completed STEM activities from mastering a torpedo launch system, building an air drop deliver system and designing Christmas decorations using a 3D printer.

Hannah Green, Director of Engineering Capability for Babcock’s UK Mission Systems business, hailed the event a huge success. “This is a core site for Babcock for our advanced manufacturing, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) programmes. We are investing and growing our manufacturing capabilities here in Bristol and have some really exciting plans for the area.

“As a female engineer, I know what an incredible career it can offer you, so this has been a fantastic event to demonstrate that.”

Rachael Riley, UTC Berkeley Green’s Employability and Student Progression Coordinator added: “It is a great initiative by Babcock to enthuse girls to consider a career in manufacturing and to provide a unique opportunity to test out some cool technology whilst speaking to engineering role models. It’s been amazing.”

Statistics from Engineering UK show that there was a drop in the proportion of women working in engineering and technology in the UK, from 16.5% to 15.7% between 2022 and 2023. That 0.8% figure represents a reduction of 38,000 in the number of women working in the field with 29,000 of these being experienced workers aged between 35 and 44 years.

Neal Misell, CEO of Babcock’s Mission Systems business added: “Having a diverse engineering workforce will ensure we are best equipped as a business to deal with the complex challenges we face every day.

"The engineering and defence sectors remain underrepresented by women – and that means we will be missing out on some incredible talent. Events like this are important to show the art of the possible to these students and break down barriers to enter these types of careers.”