We need to make engineering exciting at school.

The biggest barrier to recruiting strong candidates into engineering is that it is still not seen as a ‘sexy’ subject. We need to get a message to schools that engineering is exciting. In Asia, it is seen as a good career. Here, kids know what a vlogger does, but not an engineer.

Slow improvement.

The sector has targeted training schemes to boost the number of home-grown engineers, but not specifically girls. It has a laddish reputation and at some sites I will see only one or two women in the building. Things have improved. In the past I heard managers say things like “I wouldn’t want a woman to do this job as she may ruin her nails”.

When you have a skills shortage, you can’t focus on gender diversity.

Only two of the senior technical managers I’ve dealt with in 14 years in this sector have been women. There is such a skills shortage that most firms focus on getting any good applicants, regardless of their sex.

Positive message.

Contractors in their 20s who have done apprenticeships can earn £50-£60 per hour and aviation engineers can find contract work anywhere in the world. We need to tell companies if good candidates are being put off, and if a client repeatedly rejects good women engineers we will ask questions.