The Tomorrow’s Engineers campaign to change young people’s perceptions of engineering has considerable momentum in the UK. Yet, there is still more work to be done to encourage more girls into STEM careers.

Companies like GKN are engaging the next generation of women engineers via exciting and impressive initiatives like Formula Student, the ‘Technique for Girls’ initiative as well as fantastic internship, apprenticeship and graduate programmes around the world.

During Tomorrow’s Engineers Week, Where Women Work learnt how GKN is moving the world and why young women should be excited about a career with this innovative global firm.

GKN’s women engineers make an impact across the world

Every day, GKN drives the wheels of hundreds of millions of cars. It helps thousands of aircraft to fly, it delivers the power to move earth and harvest crops, and it makes essential components for industries that touch lives across the globe. The next generation should certainly be excited about a career that can achieve such feats that affect our everyday life.

Many impressive female engineers are taking great strides within this global firm.

GKN Aerospace’s Anna Keeling has a passion for engineering

With 54 manufacturing locations in 14 countries, all major aircraft and engine manufacturers rely on GKN Aerospace’s advanced technologies. In fact, its aerostructures, engine systems and special products improve the performance of more than 100,000 flights every day.

Anna is Senior Vice President of Commercial and is responsible for all GKN Aerospace’s commercial governance and ensuring an aligned commercial customer strategy across the business. As the only female on the GKN Aerospace Executive Committee, Anna reveals her secret for succeeding in a male dominant industry. “My ultimate passion is engineering and gender is never my focus. I focus on what make us the same: our common aspirations for building skills and capabilities within our teams and organisation, of achieving great performance and finding a shared language through open communication. Throughout my career, I have had both male and female role models and I take inspiration from both.”

GKN’s Arthy Ravichandran explores latest technologies

As the Business and Strategic Intelligence Manager at GKN Aerospace in London, Arthy Ravichandran’s role involves assessing the current market and economic situation and ensuring that relevant information is fed into the business strategy. “The aerospace market is going through a phase of change and in today’s world new technologies are being developed quite rapidly,” says Arthy.

As an example of the type of projects GKN Aerospace undertakes, think of Airbus’ Starboard Laminar flow wing panel. This innovation helped the aircraft achieve a 50 per cent reduction in wing friction and up to five per cent lower CO2 emission. Impressive work indeed.

Working on exciting projects like these and being part of a collaborative process is what Arthy enjoys the most about her role at GKN Aerospace. “As an engineer, exploring the latest technologies and working collaboratively with others in the industry, is always the most enjoyable part of my work and I feel proud that I am able to contribute to the vision of our business.”

GKN graduate engineer Shih Chyi Chak gains global experience

After a year working as a graduate railway engineer, Shih had the opportunity to join GKN. “I chose GKN’s International Graduate Programme (IGP) as it focused on me as an individual, allowing me to gain global engineering experience across the divisions,” explains Shih who looks to travel the world, already having visited seven different countries and covering 17 GKN sites.

Over past years, Shih has worked across the Group in various functions including Lean, Purchasing, Supply Chain and Operations. Her role as Manager of Programme Management Systems and Training for GKN Driveline sees her deploy the integrated Programme Management (iPM) system to around 3,000 users globally. With such progression and cross-functional career choice, GKN offers great breadth of experience in engineering.

A career with endless possibilities

Continuing to evolve and pioneer new technologies, GKN always looks to improve everything it does. By looking to the next generation of engineers, GKN’s work will continue to be innovative, diverse and current.

Interested in an engineering career with GKN? Find out more today and one day your work might positively touch many lives across the globe.

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