On Wednesday the 16th and Thursday the 17th of November 2022, Niftylift held its 6th annual Women in Engineering event at its Shenley Wood headquarters in Milton Keynes.
Niftylift’s Women in Engineering event seeks to break down traditional engineering stereotypes and encourage young females to embrace STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects and, ultimately, take up careers in the field of Engineering. The event offers girls a rare chance to see the practical applications of STEM subjects within a manufacturing company (Niftylift) and the wide range of opportunities available to girls pursuing Engineering as a career path.
The two-day event was Niftylift’s largest to date and welcomed more than 160 students and teachers from educational establishments in Milton Keynes and surrounding areas. These included: Watling Academy, Oakgrove, Thornton College, Bridge Academy, Denbigh, Ousedale, MK Academy, Shenley Brook End, Radcliffe and new additions for this year, Hazeley Academy, Kents Hill Park, Northampton High and Silverstone UTC.
The days included factory tours, production assembly tasks, Control and Hydraulic Systems demonstrations, a 3-D CAD Workshop, Purchasing and Supply-chain activities and the opportunity to talk to Niftylift’s female staff about their routes into their chosen careers at Niftylift. Finally, to finish the day on a high (literally), the girls took a ride in Niftylift’s tallest machine, the HR28 Hybrid giving them a fantastic view of the Milton Keynes skyline from 28 metres up.
The event was a great success, and feedback from the students and teachers was very positive, but it wasn’t just students and teachers that came to visit. Niftylft also welcomed Debbie Brock, the High Sheriff of Buckingham and Councillor Amanda Marlow, the Mayor of Milton Keynes.
Amanda Marlow commented:
“I was so pleased to be able to visit Niftylifts and to be shown around the factory floor by an apprentice. It was a genuinely interesting visit, and I found it incredibly inspiring to see how valued women are in engineering. Walking around the various activities that had been planned and run by apprentices, for visiting schools, you couldn’t fail to see how interested the girls were in what they were being shown and taught. I really hope that for a lot of the young women who visited Niftylifts, that they will be inspired by the manufacturing tour and will pick engineering as a career, choosing an apprenticeship pathway.”
Debbie Brock commented:
“I was privileged to visit NiftyLift on one of their Nifty Women in Engineering days, it was inspiring to see the jobs available and meet some of the awesome women carrying out those roles.”
Through events like Women in Engineering, Niftylift is helping schools to promote STEM subjects to more than just the obvious candidates. By championing the discipline’s creative aspects and inspiring young females, Niftylift hopes to encourage a new generation of female engineers to take their place in an exciting, vibrant and growing industry – ideally working at Niftylift!
If you’d like to learn more about Niftylift’s Women in Engineering event, you can find lots of information on their website at: www.niftylift.com/women-in-engineering.
