The engineering industry was traditionally very male dominated. Cirteq is pleased to be able to say it is bucking this trend.
At Cirteq women occupy a wide range of positions including manufacturing operatives, calibration engineers, R&D engineers, all the way through to the Production Operations Manager. In addition to the engineering side of Cirteq the IT department, Finance department and Customer Services department are all headed by women.
A lot has been reported in the news that leadership within business is also predominately male. Cirteq bucks the trend here too with 4 of the 9 senior management roles are occupied by women including 2 of the 3 executive positions. This is something Cirteq is very proud off.
At Cirteq we encouraging females to apply for positions within the manufacturing sector, one being Frankie Coulthread who is one of our R&D Engineers. She recently stated that she found that many of her friends had no understanding of what she did as career and she often had to explaining in great detail exactly what her role entailed.
Whilst speaking to her she recalled how she always had the ambition to become an engineer: “ I remember telling my parents I didn’t want to go to university. It wasn’t the easiest of information for them to process as I’d have been the first in the family to have been able to go, yet I’d turned it away. I spent my 6th Form years studying engineering knowing full well that I wanted to do an apprenticeship and learn skills, techniques, and gain knowledge with a more hands on approach. With very little information at the time and nobody really to ask for advice I set off on my own to find an apprenticeship.
The road has not been the easiest of journeys by any stretch but it has been worth it. I’m one of the few people I know that can say I love my job, I love coming to work, and I love getting my hands mucky!
The main question I am asked when people ask what I do is “how did you get in to that?” or “is it office based?”… far from it! My role at Cirteq is mostly hands on, I can be doing anything from machining, fitting, or machine repairs to welding and building up the latest project I’ve been working on. I’m trained to be able to do everything from start to finish but we have a good group of people in R&D so we know that if any of us get stuck with something, there is still someone there to help if needed.
I’ve been in the industry for 14 years now and I’m yet to work with another female engineer. We are a rare breed and I can see why some people would be put off at times. The reason for coming in to engineering shouldn’t be to make it a less male dominated career choice. If anyone were to ask me why they should choose to be an engineer I’d give them the following reasons:
- You will never stop learning
- You will always face new challenges
- You will develop an exceptional level of knowledge as well as a transferrable skill set
- You will feel a great sense of achievement by overcoming various obstacles
Above all else, the main reason for anyone coming in to engineering should be because they are passionate about it!
I’ve read a lot in the media about how engineering is changing, that it’s a cleaner environment than it used to be, and that attitudes have changed towards women in the industry. These comments are usually made by men in an office somewhere so I do chuckle when I put my overalls on in the morning and have a bit of banter with the lads. It’s not the attitude towards women that needs to change, it’s about having mutual respect for whoever you work with and building relationships that become less about whether you are male or female and more about becoming a damn good engineer!”
If you want to join the team at Cirteq and feel you can bring something to the Business, male or female, then check the Vacancies page on the Cirteq Website regularly.