Barrow-in-Furness engineer celebrated nationally as inspiration to future generation of female engineers

Twenty-one-year-old Denize, who is an Apprentice Non-Destructive Examination Engineering Technician at BAE Systems Submarines, won the IET’s Mary George Memorial Prize for Apprentices at the prestigious IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year virtual awards ceremony last night.

The late Mary George CBE joined the Electrical Association for Women in 1956 having previously been a Civil Servant with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The prize is given to a young female apprentice who shows great promise and potential in the profession and is tipped to be one of tomorrow’s leaders in engineering.

Denize is responsible for ensuring the structural integrity of submarines, working alongside technicians confirming critical components are free from unwanted defects. On winning, she said: “I am so grateful; I’ve got to know these incredible women and find out about the amazing work they do, and I can’t believe I’ve won.

“Being a part of YWE has been an incredible experience, especially during a year where we’ve spent most of our time at home. I’m honoured to represent women in engineering, and I hope to inspire the next generation of young girls to pursue their passion for STEM.”

The IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards celebrate women working in modern engineering – and aim to help change the perception that engineering is predominantly a career for men by banishing outdated engineering stereotypes of hard hats and dirty overalls.

As well as highlighting female engineering talent, these prestigious engineering industry awards seek to find role models who can help address the UK science and engineering skills crisis by promoting engineering careers to more girls and women. Just 12% of those working in engineering and technical occupations are women (source: Engineering UK).

Other winners include Ella Podmore (25), who won the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award, Shrouk El-Attar (28), who won the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) prize and Pam Wilson who won the Gender Diversity Ambassador Award. Finalists Bethany Probert, Melanie Jimenez and Neera Kukadia were all highly commended.

Jo Foster, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager at the IET, said: “I’d like to congratulate our fantastic winners and finalists of this year’s awards. They are a real credit to the engineering profession and will make excellent role models to young girls who might be thinking about a career in engineering and technology.

“It’s vital we champion engineering careers to the next generation – it’s a diverse, creative and exciting career, which offers the opportunity to do something life – or even – world-changing.”

The winners were announced at the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year virtual awards ceremony on 4 March.

British Astronaut, Tim Peake made a surprise appearance at the end of the ceremony with a video message congratulating the winners and finalists and talking about the importance of the awards.

The YWE Awards are sponsored by BAE Systems, Boeing, BP, Collins Aerospace, Frazer-Nash, GCHQ, Leonardo UK, MBDA, Ofcom, Royal Air Force, Royal Mail, Teledyne e2v, Thales and Wiley.

To find out more information, please visit the IET YWE website.

You can also find out more about the awards and this year’s virtual ceremony by listening to the latest edition of our Engineering a Better World podcast, featuring our winner, Ella Podmore! Available to listen to here.

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