Ricardo hosts Bring Your Daughter to Work Day for aspiring female engineers

Head of Learning and Development at Ricardo, Caroline Mawdsley shares her insights on a recent STEM activity. 

As part of our long-established commitment to inspiring the next generation of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) professionals, Ricardo recently hosted a Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, for female relatives and friends of employees from across the business. 

In total, 20 aspiring female engineers, aged between 7-16, took part in a packed day of activities, which included a snapshot of electric drive units, a build your own mini race car and a marble obstacle course, all designed to encourage creative solution-based thinking. The activities created an environment where the girls could work together as a team while also having fun and understanding the principles of engineering across a variety of areas.   

The afternoon was spent designing and building their own clay model car to test aerodynamics in a mini-wind tunnel. They also got the opportunity to spend time with their sponsors to get an insight into their specific job role. A highlight for many was the site tour, which included the VERC (Vehicle Emissions Research Centre), VAFT (Vehicle Anechoic Test Facility) and McLaren engine production line, which helped bring to life the different aspect of engineering. 

It was fantastic to see so many girls attend the day, supported by our graduates, apprentices and STEM ambassador team, and other project and test engineers from across the business. Events such as these help to give girls an important insight into the work Ricardo undertakes and the many different careers in engineering that are available to them. We hope the event will inspire the female engineers of the future.  

I’d like to thank everyone involved in hosting sessions, tours and activities, without which this type of event could not go ahead. It was great to see the girls grow more confident during the day and really throw themselves into everything. We hope they all enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed hosting them.