A new report says less than ten per cent of Britain's engineers are women. This is the lowest figure of all European countries. Vince Cable, the UK Business Secretary, told reporters that this would be an "enormous problem for years to come". He said one of the biggest areas that needed more women was in computer science. Many women graduate from university with degrees in computer science, so Mr Cable did not understand why there were so few female computer engineers. He suggested that many companies had a "psychological barrier" against women becoming engineers. He said: "Half of all state schools don't have a single girl doing physics. We are only tapping half the population."
一項新的研究表明英國女性工程師的數(shù)量少于10%。這是所有歐洲國家中數(shù)量最低的。英國商務(wù)大臣溫斯·凱博對記者說未來幾年,這將是一個不小的問題。他說在幾個重大領(lǐng)域中,最需要女性的是計算機科學領(lǐng)域。許多女性都有計算機科學文憑,這讓凱博先生很是不解,為什么電腦工程師的女性數(shù)量少之又少。他認為許多公司對女工程師存在心理障礙。他說:“在所有公立學校中,有一半學校的女學生不學習物理。我們只計算了人口總數(shù)的一半。”
The British government has started a new campaign to get more women into engineering. It is called "Tomorrow's Engineers Week" and started on November the 4th. Mr Cable said at the launch: "Engineering has a vital role to play in the future of UK industry. It is important that we act now to ensure businesses have access to the skills they require to enable them to grow." A spokesman for Siemens UK said Britain needed to "help young people understand how an engineering [training programme] can lead to a rewarding career". The campaign website said it would "showcase all the exciting businesses and industries…that rely on the work of creative engineers."
英國政府已經(jīng)開始了鼓勵更多女性投身工程的活動。該活動的名稱叫做“未來工程師周”,開始于11月4日。凱博先生在開幕儀式上說:“工程學是未來英國工業(yè)的主要組成部分。更重要的是我們必須現(xiàn)在采取行動來確保商業(yè)能夠滲透到他們所要求的技能之中,并能夠讓他們繼續(xù)成長。”英國西門子發(fā)言人稱英國需要幫助年輕人,讓他們了解工程學(培訓(xùn)項目)將會是一個回報率頗高的事業(yè)。”活動官網(wǎng)稱他們將展現(xiàn)出所有需要依靠創(chuàng)新型工程師所要完成的商業(yè)和工業(yè)項目。”