Jaguar Land Rover is today opening its doors to female students to give them a deep insight into engineering and manufacturing

• Young Women in the Know programme helps budding female apprentices build on their engineering skills, knowledge and experience
• More than 90 students will participate
• 42 previous participants have secured Apprenticeships at Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Land Rover is today opening its doors to female students to give them a deep insight into engineering and manufacturing careers. 

The students aged 15-18 have all applied for Jaguar Land Rover’s Advanced and Degree Apprenticeship programmes and secured their places on the course after passing initial HR screening and psychometric tests.

During the four-day ‘Young Women in the Know’ programme, the students will tour design and manufacturing facilities, network with female employees, spend a day on work placement with a female mentor and brush up their workability skills including CV writing and interview practice. 

The scheme is running at five Jaguar Land Rover Education Business Partnership Centres in the Midlands and Merseyside,

Nick Rogers, Executive Director, Product Engineering, Jaguar Land Rover, said: “Jaguar Land Rover has grown tremendously, and to continue to pioneer new products and focus on engineering excellence, we are passionate to welcome diverse talent from across the globe. The whole automotive industry is facing a shortfall of engineers, and for Jaguar Land Rover, encouraging more girls and women to consider a career in engineering is a vital part of addressing this shortage. We’ve seen our female engineering workforce grow from 9% to 11% over the past four years due to our initiatives like Young Women in the Know and our Women in Engineering undergraduate sponsorship scheme, and it’s great to see these programmes are helping us attract more female talent to our business.” 

Jaguar Land Rover has been running the ‘Young Women in the Know’ programme at its Solihull manufacturing plant since 2012 and 42 participants have secured apprenticeships at the company. Chloe McNally, a Jaguar Land Rover Advanced Apprentice based in Special Vehicle Operations, said: "I took part in the 'Young Women in the Know' course in 2013. I thought manufacturing plants would be dirty, noisy and not suitable for females but the reality was very different and it was great to meet so many women from across the business and hear about their careers. The course persuaded me to change my career plan from civil engineering to manufacturing. I joined the company on my apprenticeship four years ago and would thoroughly recommend it. As well as college studies, I work on bespoke premium vehicles for customers across the globe and every day brings a different challenge."

Danella Bagnall, Chief Product Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, who was recently named in Autocar’s Top 100 Most Influential British Women in the Automotive Industry, said: “I started my career as an apprentice 29 years ago which was a great way of continuing education, developing skills, and getting into industry. I am now a senior engineering manager which demonstrates the excellent career progression opportunities available to women in a modern engineering-led business like Jaguar Land Rover. I would thoroughly recommend a career in engineering to girls and hope this programme inspires lots more women to become engineers.”

The Young Women in the Know course will ensure the female students have strengthened their knowledge and experience ahead of the Apprenticeship assessment centres early next year. Conditional offers will be made in April 2016.