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.

Latest Poll puts Prince Harry as the best passenger, Harry Styles has dropped down.

In a poll conducted to celebrate the launch of the fashion-inspired special edition SEAT Mii by MANGO city car, it seems that the women of the UK have very clear ideas about who they want to have travelling alongside them.

Prince Harry rises to the top, with a quarter of those questioned wanting the handsome Royal next to them as they drive around the city. Some things don’t change though, as David Beckham shows his undying appeal, coming a close second with 21%. Victoria on the other hand didn’t fair so well, near bottom with 6%.

It seems no one wants to take the chance of having their driving judged, with Simon Cowell getting a mere 8%. The big shock is so-called ‘dream boy’ Harry Styles, who received a measly 5%, which goes to show that looks don’t always count. Embattled PM David Cameron can find no comfort in the fact that he gained only 3% of the vote, though some might say ‘as expected’.

Jennifer Lawrence leads the way with 18% of those asked choosing the Hunger Games star as their ultimate female car companion. Amazingly, Prince Harry’s sister-in-law Kate Middleton (17%) beat Beyoncé (10%) of those polled. Perhaps UK women are hoping Kate will spill the beans on her Royal brother-in-law.

When questioned about the age-old driving battle of the sexes, the poll goes on to show that women are more confident than they have ever been about their motoring abilities, with 70% considering themselves to be far more skilled drivers than the men in their lives. 

And to add insult to injury to the men who still think they’re King of the road, 49% of women believe they have a better sense of direction than their male counterparts.

Women love to be satisfied by a Jaguar first and men third,

• Women name Jaguar best automotive brand in extensive customer satisfaction survey
• Men place Jaguar third in survey results

Data from female respondents to the 2013 Auto Express Driver Survey reveals that Jaguar is the favourite car brand of women in the UK. The comprehensive survey also saw men vote Jaguar as the third most satisfying brand in the UK car market.

Driver Power is the UK’s most comprehensive car survey. The survey results include analysis of responses from 46,640 participants. Feedback from car owners covered every aspect of vehicle ownership – from performance and handling to running costs.

The positive results for Jaguar follow an outstanding achievement for the brand in the recent J.D. Power and Associates/What Car? 2013 UK Vehicle Ownership Satisfaction Study, in which Jaguar was named the number one automotive brand in the UK.

Steve Fowler, Auto Express Editor-in-Chief said: “Jaguar has always scored well in our Driver Power survey and came third overall this year. But delving deeper into the stats shows the brand doing especially well with female car buyers – they voted Jaguar the most satisfying brand to own. Women clearly love Jaguar’s cars, from the styling to the technology and the way the cars drive, while the dealers get special praise for customer service from women, too.”

Jaguar Land Rover encourages women to enter into engineering careers

Jaguar Land Rover is offering female students interested in engineering, technology and manufacturing careers a unique insight into the world of work at the UK's largest luxury automotive manufacturer.

The 'Inspiring Tomorrow's Engineers: Young Women in the Know' course has been developed in partnership with Birmingham Metropolitan College to change outdated perceptions of engineering to encourage more young women to consider engineering and manufacturing careers.

The 28 female students, aged 16-18, will be participating in a week-long programme of events from Monday 18^th February at Jaguar Land Rover’s manufacturing, design and engineering sites in Gaydon, Whitley, Solihull and Castle Bromwich. They will meet female apprentices, graduates, engineers and managers to find out about their education and career histories and will spend a day on work experience at the Solihull plant. They will also find out about Jaguar Land Rover’s apprentice and graduate schemes and participate in workshops on job applications, assessment centres and interview techniques.

Bob Joyce, Jaguar Land Rover Engineering Director, said: “Jaguar Land Rover has ambitious plans for growth and it is engineering talent that will develop the products and technologies that appeal to customers in the future. We believe that the success of our global business – and the UK economy – lies in engineering and innovation.

“We offer a wide range of education programmes with the aim of getting young people excited about engineering and crucially, to encourage them to make the right subject choices at GCSE-level and beyond. The ‘Young Women In The Know’ course has been developed to encourage female students to consider engineering careers and we hope some of the students on the course today will join Jaguar Land Rover as engineers in the future.”

Danella Bagnall, Project Planning and Integration Director at Jaguar Land Rover, added: “I started my career as an apprentice 25 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.

“It is a very exciting time to join our business. We are investing more than £2 billion a year in research and development and we need talented young people to deliver new technologies, new applications, new approaches and new ideas. I would thoroughly recommend a career in engineering to girls and hope this programme inspires lots more women to become engineers.”

The 'Inspiring Tomorrow's Engineers: Young Women in the Know' course is part of the 'Inspiring Tomorrow's Engineers' education programme which Jaguar Land Rover runs across the UK to promote STEM subjects and engineering careers.