The President of the Electricity Company of Ghana Women in-Engineering (ECG-WinE), Alberta Amankwaa, has challenged young girls to consider pursuing a career in engineering.
That, she said, was because the sector had a lot of opportunities for women who were determined to make an impact.
Ms Amankwaa said this on the sidelines of a career guidance programme held at the Ofaakor M/A Basic ‘A’ School in the Awutu Senya East municipality in the Central Region.
At the event, which formed part of the social impact outreach programme of the group, sanitary pads were distributed to the girls.
The initiative aimed to promote good menstrual hygiene, reduce absenteeism among schoolgirls due to a lack of sanitary products and support the holistic development of the girl-child while inspiring them through mentorship and career guidance from female technical staff.
Objectives
As female staff of the ECG, Ms Amankwaa said one of their key objectives was to mentor young females to develop their love for engineering and also take up courses in engineering fields and end up being female engineers so that in the future there could be a pool of female engineers to tap from as a company.
So, she said that would bridge the gender gap in the company.
“There is a huge gender gap in the ECG. The percentage of male to female engineers is just about seven to 93. So you see, there is a huge gap, and to bridge it, you need to have a pool of female engineers that you can tap from,” she said.
Commencing from the basics, she said the group decided to go to the basic and second-cycle schools to talk to the youngsters about engineering and then groom and mentor them through the tertiary institutions.
Moreover, she said they were also given internship opportunities and “then when it is time for the company to recruit, we present those we have mentored to be interviewed, and when they make it, they are recruited into ECG”.
On the issue of the sanitary pad, she said it was to help the girls take good care of their menstrual hygiene, especially during “that time of the month”.
“So we are here to educate them on how to keep themselves during that time of the month and also donate these sanitary pads to them to use during those times,” she emphasised.
Exercise
The acting District Manager for Amansaman and Programme Committee member of the ECG, Benedicta Opoku-Mensah, said the Ofaakor M/A Basic School was carefully selected for the exercise.
Students were not often exposed to such career guidance initiatives; hence, their selection.
“So we want to showcase ourselves to them, away from those who already have the opportunity and then also to do the donation to them.
The main aim of the donation is to do a social activity and also to help them.
“If you want them to become future engineers, they should be ready from now.
They should be taking care of themselves in terms of health, to be able to keep up and grow to become engineers.
So if you just come and talk to them about engineering and you go, how are you helping them through?” she asked.
Ms Opoku-Mensah advised the girls to disabuse their minds from the old saying that engineering was difficult and rigid and that gone were the days when “we have to lift heavy things.
Now technology is creating minute and miniature components that are less heavy to lift.
So when you are coming to engineering, you are not coming to build muscles”.
Technology, she said, had made muscle building in engineering a thing of the past.
“Engineering is now kind of soft.
You can do it with automation and hydraulics.
If there are things to be lifted, automation and hydraulics are there to help you lift.
Then you are using your brain and your technical know-how as an engineering software,” she said.
