By Peter Alagos/Business Reporter
More female Qatari students are taking up engineering courses, according to BAE Systems Middle East & Africa head of communications Louise Robson, who noted that women’s interest in the male-dominated field is a growing trend here.
Robson said BAE Systems and Qatar University (QU) have forged a partnership geared towards the company’s education strategy in Qatar, which is aligned with the Qatar National Vision 2030’s education pillar “and around our thrust to inspire young people to think about science and technology (S&T) and engineering as a career.”
This was echoed by BAE Systems’ new regional managing director, Martin Bennett, who underlined the role of education and the STEM (S&T, engineering, mathematics) initiatives the company has already implemented in Qatar.
“We have brought our programmes from the UK to Qatar because we need engineers and engineering is very important to us. We understand a wide range of issues around the development of engineering skill sets in the workforce.
“Similarly, we understand the importance of making kids enthusiastic about engineering. We think it is a great way to start building relationships and partnerships, which is why we’re doing it in Qatar,” Bennett said.
According to Robson, BAE Systems’ youth programme involves talking to school children “and get them excited on S&T, particularly S&T, engineering, and math.”
She said the other segment of the progamme engages QU students through apprenticeships, discussions, and trips, including a “support visit” to UK for a select group of students who toured BAE Systems aircraft assembly line in the northwest of England.
“Our focus has been on Qatar rather than in the UK, which is why we brought over young graduates and apprentices, who talked to Qatar University students about their careers and why they chose engineering as a career, and what’s it like to work for a large engineering company,” Robson said.
Asked about the increase in the number of female engineering students in the country, Robson said: “The interest in girls to study engineering and beyond law, medicine, and other traditional areas is really growing in Qatar.”
“As a company, we’re passionate about getting young girls interested in engineering and in the UK we’re still trying to achieve that. But here in Qatar there is a really strong female and cohort at Qatar University studying engineering,” she said.
Robson added: “But what would be great is to get more female Qatari engineers as advocates for younger girls. We also need younger role models, which is why we bring in our engineers and apprentices considering that we have good number of young women that start on our apprentice or graduate programme.”
Meanwhile, Bennett also said BAE Systems’ team in Qatar, together with Russell Millar, director Northern Gulf, will work together to drive forward local partnerships and demonstrate how the company can support the development of Qatar and its people.
BAE Systems regional managing director Martin Bennett.
