The programme will provide up to 1000 women with the necessary skills, training and career development opportunities to become an engineer.
The UK has less women working in the field than anywhere else in Europe - only 2% of Sky's engineering workforce are women.
The company hopes to increase the number of female engineers at the company to 20% over the next two years.
That was the conclusion of an engaging RTS debate, Is Older the New Younger?, which heard from an all-female panel chaired by Channel 4 News’s Social Affairs Editor, Jackie Long.
Screenwriter Key Mellor said that with people like Charlotte Moore at the BBC (director of content) and Polly Hill at ITV (head of drama) occupying powerful jobs TV was less dominated by men that it once was.
At an RTS early evening event in late April, chaired by TV science specialist Maggie Philbin, a top-notch panel offered some solutions to a problem that affects not just telly, but the UK economy as a whole.
Women are grossly under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) – only 12.8% of the UK’s STEM workforce is female. This situation seems unlikely to change quickly given that just 15% of engineering and technology higher education students are female.
Why, 46 years after the Equal Pay Act, are women in television still being paid less than men? “A man at exactly the same grade as me, with far less education and experience, and who joined the BBC after I did, was paid £10,000 more than me,” says one female staffer.
“I am paid £5,000 less than a man on the same grade, despite having more responsibility and having worked more years on the team,” complains another.
Young people with a passion for broadcasting and filmmaking have been celebrated at one of the region’s most prestigious media events.
The University of Sunderland hosted the RTS North East and Border Centre, Young Peoples’ Media Festival (YPMF) on Wednesday 18 May. The festival celebrates work from students, schools and colleges throughout the North East, North Yorkshire, and Cumbria.
