'More female graduates needed' for engineering jobs

There are plenty of opportunities for women seeking graduate jobs in scientific industries, it has been highlighted.

Chief Executive of the Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics Network, Yvonne Baker, said that there are many 'big employers' that are 'desperate' to employ women because of the different perspective they can bring.

She told The Independent: 'It's not a macho, dirty working environment; it's high-tech, varied and hugely exciting.'

However, many female graduates are put off engineering jobs and other scientific vacancies because of the ethical associations of some companies. This could change with the emergence of a greener type of science, Annette Williams of the UK Resource Centre for Women told the newspaper.

'Careers in renewables or sustainable buildings might appeal more to women because of their ethical nature,' she said.

Meanwhile, Bill Wakeham, Chair of the Research Council's UK review of physics, told Nature magazine that the number of people graduating from university and going into physics in 2006-07 was 3,885, up from 3,415 in 2002-03.