During my time working in the construction industry, I have participated in several schemes designed to help schools improve their career programmes, particularly in relation to STEM. I have given talks, built structures from spaghetti, spoken to students in workshops and helped with mock university interviews. While some of these events have been aimed at female students, I have tried to make sure that is not always the case.

I had particularly terrible careers advice at school. A career in engineering was never suggested to me, but I attended a girls’ school and as a result the idea that I might not do something because I was a girl had never even occurred to me.

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