Make study of engineering gender friendly
A female Engineer, Mrs. Josephine Agbedoawu has asked the country’s education authorities to take steps to ensure the study and teaching of science related courses such as Engineering become gender friendly.
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According to her any meaningful attempt to attract more females to study and teach engineering subjects must demystify science in general and engineering in particular as a male dominated fields.
Mrs Agbedoawu was addressing a Girls’ Career Guidance seminar to mark this year’s International Women’s Day in Accra.
The one-day seminar was attended by 40 female students from the Presbyterian Senior High School and Salem Senior High School both at Osu.
It was organized by the Rlg Foundation under the theme “Empowering Women - Empowering Humanity: Picture It!
The International Women’s Day is a United Nations commemorative day dedicated to the celebration of the achievements of women worldwide while reflecting on challenges facing them.
Speaking on the topic “The benefits and challenges of a female Engineer”, Mrs. Agbedoawu, a Transmission Planning Engineer herself, advised the girls to take their Science and Maths subjects seriously if they want to pursue careers in the engineering field.
She said whiles most engineering jobs are lucrative and engineers are usually sought after it is also challenging and lonely looking because fewer ladies are in that field.
Mrs. Agbedoawu also decried the fear girls have for engineering subjects and courses, citing an example that during her secondary school days, they were only 4 girls in a class of 65 students and that number even reduced further to 2 during her undergraduate programme at the University.
The Head of Human Resources at Rlg Communications Ghana Ltd, Mrs. Barbara Opoku, advised the girls to shun what she described as “unproductive acts” including sexual activities that will result in teenage pregnancies and curtail their educational pursuit.
She spoke on “Career options in the ICT Industry and how to pursue them” and made a distinction between the hardcore ICT related careers such as programmers, transmission engineers, software and application developers and that of support services such human resource managers, accountants and customer care personnel who work in the ICT industry.
She further advised the girls to pursue careers which have scarce skills set and the longevity which will ensure the long duration of their employment.
Ms. Esther Ntow, a teacher at the Presbyterian Senior High School at Osu was grateful to the Rlg Foundation for creating a learning opportunity for students.
The Manager of the Rlg Foundation, Mr Malcolm Frazier said aside institutionalizing the annual celebration, the Foundation will facilitate a mentoring programme for female students and successful female career women and professionals.
The programme was also used to counsel girls on the various career options in the ICT industry.
The female students also toured Rlg Ghana manufacturing Plant and showroom to acquint themselves operations of the company.
