TWENTY schoolgirls and their teachers were given a tour of one of ScotRail Alliance’s train depot as part of International Women into Engineering Day 2017 aimed at encouraging more women into the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

The pupils, from Bellahouston Academy in Glasgow, visited the Shields depot and met ScotRail Alliance’s engineering director, Angus Thom who gave them a talk about the maintenance, cleaning and refurbishment of electric trains.

The visit was part of ScotRail’s wider outreach programme aimed at attracting more female candidates to apply for jobs not only engineering but also the wider railway business.

The ScotRail Alliance’s director of human resources, John Gillies, said: “A train depot is a busy and hectic workplace that offers career opportunities and a rewarding career. We welcome all candidates bringing the correct skills and knowledge to our workforce.

“We also want to increase the number of female candidates applying to work in all parts of the ScotRail Alliance and the depot visit hopefully demonstrated to the girls that this is a challenging and vibrant environment they’d want to work in.”

Two senior engineering managers – Syeda Ghufran and Lynsey McCabe – also took the girls through a “day in the life” of an engineer and answered questions. Ghufran said: “Girls, in particular, don’t seem to think that engineering is a suitable career, despite their achievements in maths and science at school.”