Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland visited the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), the oldest women's engineering group in the world, to find out more about what they do and to show his support.

Stephen commented, "It was a pleasure to meet the team from the Women's Engineering Society based here in Stevenage. I was inspired by the work the Society is doing to try and reduce the current skills gap by encouraging lots of girls to apply for engineering apprenticeships.I very much look forward to working with them to encourage more girls to choose engineering as a great career, which is both rewarding and inspirational."

Dawn Bonfield, WES’s Vice President, said, “We are a national organisation whose aim it to support individual engineers as well as companies who wish to improve their diversity agenda, but also we are keen to work with schools to promote engineering as an exciting career to girls who may not have considered it as an option.”WES are a membership organisation whose aim is to inspire, support and encourage girls and women to pursue a career in engineering. They are a charity based at the offices of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in Stevenage.

WES is keen to engage with engineering companies in and around North Herts who can help support the work that they do, and is also appealing to any individuals interested in volunteering to help progress the aims of the charity to get in touch. WES has lots of project work going on at the society, and always needs ambassadors to go into local schools to encourage the youngsters, so any help would be greatly appreciated.