Procat, the UK’s first college of advanced technology in the UK is this year proudly sponsoring National Women in Engineering Day (NWED), taking place today, June 23.

The college, which has campuses in Basildon and Canvey, is proud to be a main sponsor of the initiative and has organised events this week to inspire young women to think about apprenticeships and careers in engineering.

Thales, a global company which designs and builds electrical systems and provides services for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security markets are running demonstrations in Procat’s rail academy, while students are also taking part in engineering taster sessions run by Procat tutors and lecturers.

Due to the popularity of the event with schools, Procat put on a further session on Tuesday this week with girls from Chelmsford County High School for Girls being the first to take part.

Procat is committed to working with their employer partners to attract more young women into rail and wider engineering apprenticeships. It has a strong and highly regarded engineering apprenticeship programme and although it is seeing a steady increase in female apprentices, they still only make up five per cent of the engineering programme.

Procat is keen to highlight the incredible opportunities available to young women to as many schools as possible.

The college still has more than 100 apprenticeship vacancies available for young people.

To see what employers are hiring check out www.procat.ac.uk.