- First winner announced in the £9,000 Range Rover Evoque WISE Scholarship programme for young female engineering students
- Harriet Vickers to receive £3,000 and professional mentoring to support her engineering degree course at Durham University
- Scholarship highlights Land Rover's commitment to increasing the number of female engineers in the UK and creating more diversity in the industry
Whitley, UK, 7th November 2013 ‑ The first winner has been announced of the Range Rover Evoque WISE Scholarship, a funding programme that is encouraging young women to change the face of British engineering. Harriet Vickers, 18, from Spalding in Lincolnshire, is the first beneficiary of the bursary, which will help her through her engineering degree course at Durham University.
As well as receiving £1,000 a year for her studies over the next three years, Harriet will be given practical support with mentoring from senior Jaguar Land Rover engineers and WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) representatives.
Land Rover partnered with WISE and introduced the scholarship to inspire more young women to take up engineering as a career, increasing diversity in the industry. Currently women account for only around 13% of the UK's engineering workforce. The scheme is providing bursaries worth £9,000 funded by the MacRobert Award, the UK's premier engineering award which Land Rover received in 2012 for the excellence of its engineers' work in the packaging of the Range Rover Evoque.
Zara Phillips launched the programme for Land Rover at this year's Royal Windsor Horse Show. She spoke enthusiastically about the experience of her grandmother, the Queen, learning the mechanical engineering skills as a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) during World War II, and her mother Princess Anne's commitment to helping young women choose engineering as a career as WISE's royal patron.
This helped prompt a great number of applications from post‑GCSE and A‑level students keen to take up an engineering degree and apprenticeship courses. The all‑female judging panel, comprising representatives from Jaguar Land Rover, WISE and the Women's Engineering Society (WES), drew up a shortlist of five candidates who went forward for interview at JLR's Design and Engineering Centre.
Nicci Cook, Jaguar Land Rover Senior HR Manager Product Development and a member of the judging panel, said: "In offering the Range Rover Evoque WISE Scholarship it was Jaguar Land Rover's intention to inspire a whole generation of young women to consider a career in science, technology, engineering or mathematics."
"The applicants we met were not only talented, they were also extremely passionate ‑ two qualities which Harriet certainly has. I am confident that not only will she go on to have a highly successful career, she will also be a great ambassador, encouraging other young women to embark on a similar career path."
Harriet will receive her scholarship at the 2013 WISE Awards in London on 14th November, where more than 300 people will join Princess Anne, the organisation's royal patron, to celebrate the achievement of girls and women in the STEM disciplines ‑ science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
‑ ENDS ‑
For further information log onto www.uk.media.landrover.com or contact:
Lucy
Reynolds
PR Manager, Land Rover
UK
T: 02476 564 161
M: 07801
699928
E: lreyno25@landrover.com
Kim Palmer
Senior Press Officer, Land Rover UK
T: 02476 564 129
M: 07795 666169
E: kpalmer@landrover.com
Rachel Murray
Press Officer, Land Rover UK
T: 02476 564 127
M: 07780 494282
E: rmurra73@landrover.com
Editors Note:
Harriet Vickers Biography
Harriet, 18, from Spalding in Lincolnshire, attended Spalding High School, a selective state school for girls, and has just started a Degree in Engineering at Durham University.
Harriet will be 19 on the 15th Nov ‑ the day after the WISE Awards event.
Harriet will receive a bursary of £1000 a year for 3 years whilst studying, plus mentoring support from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and WISE representatives. She will also be encouraged to become actively involved in role model opportunities at a national and local level in order to inspire more girls to go into STEM careers.
Harriet has known she wanted to be an engineer since she was 13 years old and was attracted to engineering by the creativity aspect, the opportunity to change the world we live in and the fact she would get to work closely with clients to come up with design proposals which meet their requirements. After doing work experience with National Grid and Arup, she gave talks to younger girls in the school about the opportunities in engineering. Last summer she went on an expedition to Tanzania and Kenya, working with local engineers to build foundations for a medical centre.
Land Rover and WISE
Since 1948 Land Rover has been manufacturing authentic 4x4s that represent true breadth of capability across the model range. Defender, Freelander, Discovery, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover and Range Rover Evoque each define the world's 4x4 sectors. Land Rover products are currently sold in approximately 180 global markets.
WISE (women in science and engineering) helps organisations to inspire women and girls to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as pathways to exciting and fulfilling careers. Our mission is to push the presence of female employees from 13% to 30% by 2020, boosting the talent pool to drive economic growth. More information at www.wisecampaign.org.uk or contact Campaigns Manager, Sarah Shaw via email or phone: s.shaw@wisecampaign.org.uk and 07545 208 530
The WISE Awards will be presented on 14 November at the Science Museum in London. Details of the awards and short listed winners can be found here www.wisecampaign.org.uk
The Range Rover Evoque WISE Scholarship was launched by Zara Phillips and will provide a total of £9,000 in bursaries to three female students or apprentices who would like to explore a career or further studies in engineering. There will be one winner a year for three years and each winner will receive £1000 for three years. In addition the winners will be provided with mentoring support from both Jaguar Land Rover senior engineers and WISE representatives.