School and college age girls descended on the Glasgow University campus to learn more about how they can find a rewarding career in Science, Technology, Engineering or Maths.
Though hosted by the university, the event itself was organised and run through a collaboration between the jobs site, Monster, and STEMettes.
The latter is an organisation committed to getting more girls into tech and run by Anne-Marie Imafidon, a former Young IT Professional of the year.
250 secondary school girls and 120 college and university age women from institutions across Glasgow took part in networking events, workshops and were treated to a keynote speech by space engineer, Jenni Doonan, and aerodynamics engineer and STEM Ambassador, Ian Taylor.
Mary Youngs, MD at Accenture and volunteer for STEMettes, said: “I had no idea that there could be so much buzz and noise and that the girls could be so interested.
"What we’ve seen here today has been amazing and only goes to show how interested, and interesting, women are in technology, engineering and the sciences.”
Sinead Bunting, EU Marketing Director at Monster, realised two years ago that the organisation needed to do something to help young women bridge the pay and confidence gap, which precipitated the collaboration with STEMettes.
She said: “We need to help build a pipeline to get women into these careers.
"There will be 1 million more jobs needed in tech by 2020 and society can no longer afford to ignore such a large percentage of the workforce.
"Historically so many women have featured in tech such as Grace Hopper and British information technology pioneer, Dame Stephanie Shirley.
"Girls need to get back into the top jobs in technology and can’t be underrepresented any longer.”
