Alumna Victoria Roots, named as one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering in June this year, delivers annual Jennison Lecture: ‘Women in Engineering – 9% is not enough’

Kindly sponsored by The IET, it was a pleasure to host the annual Jennison Lecture on the evening of 1st November which was delivered by Kent alumna, Victoria Roots, recently named as one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering Under 35 at the Women in Engineering awards in June this year. Currently, fewer than 10% of the engineering workforce are women, and with a large skills gap in the sector looming, and the additional need for a more diverse workforce, it has never been more important to encourage girls to choose a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine and Mathematics.

It was fascinating to hear Victoria’s personal account of her career journey into engineering, learn about the current gender diversity statistics in the sector and consider suggestions concerning what we can all do to improve equality and inclusion within STEM and the engineering sector specifically.

Victoria graduated from the School of Engineering and Digital Arts at the University of Kent in 2009 with a 1st class BEng (Hons) in Electronics and Communications Engineering. She moved into teaching ICT at a secondary school for three years until deciding to move back into the engineering field. She joined the Graduate Program at BAE Systems in Kent in 2012 as a Graduate Systems Engineer. During the Graduate scheme, Victoria took on extra assignments as Early Careers Coordinator and University of Kent Campus Manager. By raising the profile of the BAE Systems Rochester site within the local area and encouraging young people into engineering, she was awarded the Graduate Community Achievement Award in 2014. She completed the Graduate scheme in 2014 and is currently a Senior Systems Engineer.