A COLLEGE has seen a spike in women engaging in engineering following a course of positive discrimination.

City of Glasgow College found that young women had the skill, ambition and interest in the subject but were put off by the male-dominated educational environment.

However, a pilot project that saw female applicants enrolled in a same-sex class for the first year of their course has encouraged more than a dozen girls to sign up this year.

Carol Murray, Head of School, Construction, Engineering and Energy, said: “Typically, we get one or two girls in every class.

“We’ve never really got above five or six per cent. On a really good year, maybe seven per cent.

“We thought we needed to try something different, so we decided to run a course that was all girls and see if that encourages more of them to come in.”

In an attempt to entice female school-leavers to one of its engineering courses – electronic, electric, mechanical, or marine – City of Glasgow College ran a three-day taster course to give prospective students a flavour of what they could expect.

More than 70 girls turned up to hear motivational speakers from the engineering industry.

Those who attended the taster course expressed that a girls-only course in first year at college would boost their confidence and that, from second year study onward, they would feel established as engineering students and sufficiently positive about integrating with male classes.

Ms Murray said: “We have five all-male classes, so we’re not discriminating against males – we’re just doing something to try to open the door for girls.

"We have an ocean of female talent and, previously, we haven’t been able to tap into it.

“Girls are interested in engineering – they just don’t want to go to an educational setting where they are the only girl.

"Just because there’s another one girl there, it doesn’t mean they’re going to be pals. Whereas, if there are five or six girls, there’s a greater chance they they’ll make friends, enjoy their education, and excel academically.”

City of Glasgow College has committed to ensuring the Women Into Engineering taster course for prospective students will become an annual event.

In 1977, Ms Murray became the first-ever female apprentice at Rolls Royce, working as a research and development engineer at the aerospace factory in Hillington.

She said: “Engineering is a great career because there are so many different facets to it: if you get fed up with one type of engineering, you can move into a totally different area and still be an engineer.

"You can travel the world or stay at home. A lot of doors have been opened to women in engineering now.”