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Women advised to enter field of engineering

Women advised to enter field of engineering

The Dean of Faculty of Civil and Geo-Engineering of the College of Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology  (KNUST), Professor Eric Kwabena Forkuo, has advised women to take the challenge and enter the field of engineering.

Speaking at a Women in Engineering Conference in Kumasi, he said there was the need for women to take the challenge to face men in engineering, and urged them to take inspiration from Edith Clarke and Ada Lovelace who had influenced development through the profession.

He noted that the field of engineering was appropriate and acceptable for women of the  21st century who wanted to be independent, critical analysts and add meaning to their life and that of their immediate environment and beyond. 

Interesting field

He said engineering needed not to be viewed or seen as a demigod or something reserved for men, but must be seen as an interesting field for women to explore, create, think and invent in order to change their environment.

"It is not easy but you can make it. Don't be deceived, misguided or discouraged by anyone," he reiterated. 

Prof. Forkuo said the public, and, for that matter, women needed to understand that they needed not to only think of exploring opportunities in the humanities, pointing out that young females who pursued education in engineering enjoyed the pride to improve their personal lives and transform the fortunes of their communities and the nation as a whole.

Advantages

He mentioned some advantages for women in engineering as "getting the opportunity to work with other talented people, since engineering is about teamwork, a multi-dimensional field, job security,  prestige and social recognition or respect attached to the field, especially that for women in the field".

The foundation Vice Chancellor of the University of Energy and Natural Resources, Ing. Prof. Mrs Esi Awuah, said it was necessary to grasp Mathematics and Science subjects as the fundamentals of engineering at the basic school, pointing out that excellent or very good remarks in those subjects would help build young women for analytical thinking, hence make them develop the potential of becoming engineers.

Career choice 

The Ashanti Regional President of Women in Engineering, Ing. Araba Amo-Aidoo, stressed the need to sensitise young women to study engineering as a career choice, pointing out that going through the field would make young women grow to add value to their lives.

She applauded 30 facilitators who had taken some 1,000 female students from 12 senior high schools and 13 junior high schools through studies in the field.

The Secretary of the Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Institution of Engineers, Ing. Samuel Gikunoo, called on members of the institution to join the public education on the benefits of engineering.

 

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