The Association of Practising Women Engineers in Nigeria has called on parents, guardians, and governments to encourage female children to take up engineering as a profession.
The chairperson of the Calabar Chapter of the association, Justina John Ulafor, made the call at a one-day workshop with the theme “She Engineer and Digitalization,’ where she asserted that there is a dearth of female engineers in the country.
Engineer Ulafor avowed that the association is doing more sensitization to entice young girls to see the value and benefits inherent in the engineering profession.
According to her: “We have done our STEM exams to see how we can encourage the girl-child students in the secondary school to do the exams.
“We want to bridge the gap through what we are doing—encouraging the girl child to do science by taking up a career in engineering.
“For others who are already engineers, we encourage them to stay put through a mentorship programme, Capacity Building in Entrepreneurship, because an engineer is supposed to be an entrepreneur.”
Also speaking, Engineer Faith Edu, the incoming chairman, said their mission is to “encourage the girl child towards pursuing a career in engineering and breaking stereotypes.”
The event featured scholarship awards and recognitions.
