An award-winning Oxfordshire engineering company specialising in the green energy sector is calling for more women to enter into a career in British engineering and to sign up for the huge opportunities open to them in the sector.

The UK currently has the worst percentage in Europe of women employed as engineers, languishing at less than 10% – something that urgently needs to be addressed, says LTI, if UK manufacturing is to remain competitive and more women are to be encouraged to join the industry.

Abingdon-based LTi Metaltech appreciates all too well the barriers many women endure when trying to break into traditionally male-dominated industries, such as discrimination and lack of resources.

However, as an enterprising engineering company specialising in the precision fabrication of high performance vessels and structures, the company actively seeks employment of and supports both men and women, but the company’s Technical Director Edgar Rayner is still frustrated at the small number of female applicants wishing to embark on a career in the sector.

Edgar Rayner said: “At LTi, we actively encourage women to join our engineering team, and yet we are barely making in-roads, despite excellent opportunities and a recognition that women can bring unique skills to an industry still dominated by men.

“We need more women in engineering so younger generations have role models to look up to and to know that a career in engineering is possible for them.”

At present, women make up only 19% of senior roles in the UK, and an even smaller number of women (11%) make up the country’s engineering workforce, despite 15% of UK engineering graduates being women.