Three women at Barrow-based BAE Systems have turned to the Girl Guides to inspire the next generation of female engineers.
Lauren Eastburn, Sophie Morris and Beth Howarth-Henry started their own engineering careers in BAE’s submarines division after successfully completing the apprentice or graduate programmes.
Lauren is now a senior manufacturing engineer, Sophie a senior integration engineer and Beth a lead quality engineer.
In 2017, working in partnership with Girl Guiding North West and forming a team called ‘G-Eng’, they launched the ‘Clever Cogs’ badge programme in 2017, the first of its kind for the Guiding movement.
Since its launch, the ‘Clever Cogs’ programme, has been completed by more than 23,000 girls aged 5 – 24 across the UK and is the most popular badge Girl Guiding North West England has ever run.
The programme so far includes 33 different activities across four badges providing a greater insight into what engineering is and includes information about inspirational female engineering role models who have excelled in their fields.
“We are huge believers of the phrase ‘if you can see it, you can be it’,” said Lauren.
“So we are taking this opportunity to recognise all the amazing women who have come before us within the defence and engineering industries, and in our company, working tirelessly to pave the way for a new generation of engineers who can grow and develop in a more inclusive environment.”
Due to the popularity of Clever Cogs, the G-Eng team and Girl Guiding North West England are introducing a new badge every year, for six years, which started on International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) in 2019 with a badge that was themed around transportation engineering. On INWED 2020, the next expansion pack was launched, themed around environmental engineering.
This mnth the latest badge, Making Waves, was launched during a virtual event that more than 500 girl guides attended.
Beth said: “We are excited about this year’s Clever Cogs badge, because it is themed around marine engineering, which is the industry that all three of us started our engineering journeys in.”
In 2019, the G-Eng team launched a similar programme for Girl Guides Singapore called ‘She Solves’, and in 2020 launched the ‘Gear up’ badge with the Girl Guides Association Malaysia.
