A new two-year pan-European collaborative project – Engendering STEM – aims to find effective methods for improving gender equality with a target to increase women’s participation by 10%.
Douglas Morrison, STEM and Innovation Lead at City of Glasgow College, said: “Working with key experts, educators, industrialists and policy makers, our aim is to develop a better understanding of how we can help SMEs develop inclusive workplace practices and reap the social and economic benefits associated with employing a diverse workforce.”
Common challenges to developing more inclusive workplaces include resources, access to expertise and awareness of effective practices.
Talat Yaqoob, Director at Equate Scotland, said: “Scotland has one of the lowest proportions of women in engineering and by learning from those doing better we hope to make Scotland a gender equality champion in this area. Across Europe there are no countries who have got this right. There is significant work to do and that is why this project is critical.”
The project will share learning and good practice amongst European partners in order to support SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) operating within the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) sectors, helping them to be bolder on gender equality. Evidence based self-assessment toolkits, best practice guides and blended learning training solutions will be delivered to over 2,000 participants.
Engendering STEM is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.
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