Wanted: Women to help build Britain's high speed rail link

Britain's biggest construction project of the 21st century, the proposed High Speed Two rail link, backed a campaign Tuesday to recruit an army of female engineers.

The government-back company behind the 79 billion U.S. dollar project, HS2 Limited, threw its weight Tuesday behind National Women in Engineering Day.

Female engineers already working on the massive rail project were spending the day convincing young female students about the wealth of opportunities in the rail industry.

HS2 has launched its STEM - science, technology, engineering and maths - inspiration program to introduce potential recruits to HS2's successful women engineers.

"We want to promote the engineering industry as an exciting, challenging sector in which to work," said an HS2 spokeswoman.

Students spent Tuesday mixing with female engineers in 'speed networking' events.

Beth West, HS2's commercial director, said: "Our female ambassadors are working to spread the message that being a woman is not a barrier to working in the rail industry.

"HS2 is a 21st century project and we want to lead by example on diversity. We strongly believe in the value of women in the workforce and currently a third of our engineers and our executive team are female. We will build on that along with the wider industry, where only 6 per cent of the engineering workforce is female."

Simon Kirby, CEO of HS2 said: "Over the life of the project HS2 will be offering 2,000 apprenticeships to young people and 100,000 jobs. Days like today are really important as we need young qualified people to move into these roles and drive forward our future infrastructure development."

Government Transport Minister Lord Ahmad said: "The government's investment in world-class infrastructure, like HS2, will create jobs and opportunities across the country as part of our long-term economic plan. We need to make use of all available talent to ensure Britain stays on the right track. Women currently make up a tiny proportion of our surveyors, engineers and construction professionals. We need to overhaul the sector's image, so engineering and construction are a more attractive career option for women. A diverse workforce means a more successful workforce, which is why I am backing this campaign."

HS2 will provide fast trains from London to central and northern England, with the first stretch to Birmingham due to open in the 2020s.

Currently legislation is going through the parliamentary processes prior to work starting.

The British government says the new fast link, with trains travelling at up to 360 kilometers per hour, is needed to ease congestion on the existing crowded rail links to northern England and Scotland. Endit