When I grew up I had no idea what I wanted to be. More specifically, I knew that I wanted to make money, but not how I would go about it. During my time at school, I was never pushed into anything apart from stereotypical roles for women – mostly admin roles. I wasn’t encourages to step into a STEM-related career and I certainly wasn’t encouraged to explore finance and entrepreneurship. That is why, as an entrepreneur and finance blogger, I am really excited to have teamed up with EDF Energy and their Pretty Curious programme, which aims to encourage girls to consider STEM careers.
What are STEM-related careers?
STEM careers are careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. There is a huge variety of career paths that are open to anyone with these types of skills. These careers range from an architect to a tech-start up founder.
Why should we be encouraging girls?
I am all for anything that promotes gender equality.
At the moment, just one in four people who are working in the core STEM roles within the United Kingdom are women. Shockingly, just 4% of engineering apprentices in the United Kingdom are women.
In order to address this under-representation of women in STEM careers, EDF energy launched their Pretty Curious campaign with an ambitious goal.
By 2018 they wanted to see 30% of their STEM graduates and apprentices would be women.
They completely smashed this goal with 35% in 2017, but they aren’t stopping there.
They are on a mission to continue to encourage girls to pursue STEM based subjects and careers.
EDF Energy's Pretty Curious Programme
There are plenty of ways that we can encourage girls to study STEM subjects with a view to starting a career in this area.
To celebrate the launch of the latest Star Wars film, EDF Energy's Pretty Curious campaign has a really exciting collaboration. They have joined forces with Lucasfilm and Disney to inspire more girls to consider a STEM career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKbL5PVTjqs
This partnership features two inspirational female characters from Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Rose and Rey have strong STEM skills, which will encourage girls to look at STEM subjects and careers in a new light.
As well as the Star Wars partnership, The Pretty Curious homepage is also bursting with activities to address some of the reasons why girls are being put off this type of career.
One of my favourite parts was the STEM career quiz, where girls can answer questions and see which STEM career would suit them. There is also a parents quiz where you can see which STEM-related career would best suit your child, based on their strengths. I completed the quiz and I have to say that I’m not surprised by the results:
EDF Energy's Pretty Curious programme are also hosting a fantastic competition to win a littleBits Star Wars Droid kit. If you'd like to enter then be quick because the draw closes on 14th January 2018. Click here to take the STEM career quiz to find the link to enter the competition.
There are also 360º videos which allow girls to experience role within these fields, including a day in the life of the architect of the Shard, seeing what it is like to work on a wind farm or explore the offices of a software developer. All of these videos feature amazing and inspirational women.
Another really cool part of the website is that girls can create a personalised avatar in a STEM-related career and then share this. It helps girls to picture themselves in a STEM-related career including an electrical engineer or biologist.
As you can see, EDF Energy has made great progress in encouraging girls into STEM careers. Can you think of any girls in your life who would benefit from being encouraged into this type of career?
Collaborative post.
