Forth Valley College in Stirlingshire has registered a record number of female engineering modern apprentices (MAs) for an academic year.

A total of 19 women MAs — covering areas such as welding and fabrication, instrumentation, power distribution and mechanical engineering — have begun their apprenticeships at the FVC Falkirk Campus.


They will all spend their first year at college, while being employed by various companies such as TechnipFMC, Petrofac, Scotrail, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Aker Solutions, WorleyParsons, Ineos and PetroIneos, Dupont and Scottish Power.

Dunfermline-based TechnipFMC has even recorded parity in the new-start MA group, with eight women MAs and eight men beginning their journey at the same time.

ECITB (the statutory skills body for the engineering construction industry) sponsors the training of MAs at FVC on behalf of various partner companies.

It also saw the largest-ever enrolment of first-year women MAs, with four starting on the Oil and Gas Technical Apprentice Programme (OGTAP).

Ken Thomson, the principal of Forth Valley College, said: “It is great to see a record number of women engineering modern apprentices start with us this year, and we hope this will inspire even more women to think about engineering as a career.

“As a college we have been taking this message to schools and across the wider community for many years and we know our industry partners have been doing the same.

“We hope intakes like this will become the norm from now on.”

Chris Claydon, chief executive of the ECITB, said: “It’s really encouraging to see 15 women in the cohort of modern apprentices at Forth Valley College and another four female apprentices enrolled in this year’s OGTAP programme.

“They are clearly working hard to counter traditional stereotypes and make engineering an attractive career path for talented young women.”