Network Rail Hosts Myth-Buster Event to Inspire Female Students in York for International Women’s Day, UK

On Thursday, 29 February, Network Rail held an event at a York school called a morning myth-buster in celebration of International Women’s Day, aiming to enlighten and encourage students about the diverse career paths available to women within the rail sector. The Mount School in York welcomed the event for 51 female students from year 10 and 12, who are currently considering their future career paths following their GCSEs or A-levels. These myth-buster sessions are designed to motivate the youth to chase their ideal careers while dismantling gender biases. The team from Network Rail introduced the students to a broad spectrum of career opportunities within the rail sector, questioning them about their interest in joining the Network Rail workforce. Highlights of the event included discussions on apprenticeship programs and activities designed to pique students’ interest in STEM careers. An engaging team exercise saw students tackling the challenge of bridge-building, confronting realistic project hurdles like budget constraints, supply chain problems, and ecological considerations. Participants assumed various project roles, such as project manager and environmental manager, to stimulate thinking about the collaborative nature of project execution. The event emphasized the significance of selecting the appropriate educational or professional pathway, whether through apprenticeships or STEM-focused university courses, leading to opportunities in graduate schemes. Organized by Lily Shimmin, Portfolio Manager for Network Rail’s Eastern region, the event featured a presentation that gave insights into Network Rail’s operations and shared personal stories from employees about their journeys into the rail sector. It also prompted the girls to reflect on their preconceptions of a career in the rail industry. Network Rail staff were available to share their personal experiences as women in the rail sector, reinforcing the message that the railway industry welcomes everyone. These myth-buster events are part of a broader initiative to reach out to schools throughout Yorkshire and beyond, aiming to inspire a new generation of women in alignment with International Women’s Day festivities. Lily Shimmin, Portfolio Manager in the Eastern region at Network Rail said: These events are a great way to engage and inform girls on what it is like to be a woman working in rail at an age where they are choosing the next steps on their life path. Growing up, events like this were never hosted at my school and I wanted to organise something that reached out to students at key points in their education to show the various opportunities for women in the rail industry. It was created from a place of noticing a gap in the events that Network Rail run and wanting to make a real tangible difference to students careers. I hope we can expand these events out across regions and to reach out to a range of schools going forward. It is so important to make sure that women and girls feel able to pursue a career in any industry they wish. James Waddington, Deputy Head of College at The Mount School said: The girls have had the opportunity to find out more about Network Rail as an employer and to talk about different routes into jobs such as apprenticeships and graduate schemes. They were also able to work on their own projects building bridges where they had to take on individual roles that they might have to do in the real-world of work. It is so important for the girls to know what is out there in terms of opportunities, they made great progress in the session, and they now have a much wider understanding of some of the roles that would be available to them in a company like Network Rail. Especially as an all-girls school, it is vital to challenge any gender stereotypes that exist in jobs in the rail industry and to show that women can thrive just as strongly.