FEATURE
Jobs for the girls !
How Sembcorp is raising the profile of female staff to inspire other young women
WORDS : SARAH WALKER PICTURE : TOM BANKS
Showcasing the opportunities for females in what can be perceived to be male-dominated careers is extremely important to Sembcorp , which is based on and largely owns the Wilton International site near Redcar .
With significant investment in the process sector and net zero projects on Teesside , Jo Potter , head of HR , believes it has never been more important to attract women into jobs which centre around science , technology , engineering and maths ( STEM ).
Jo and her colleagues believe businesses such as Sembcorp - as well as schools and colleges - have a role to play in highlighting the wide variety of STEM-based careers available to young women and girls .
That ’ s why the business has entered no less than five women into the Tees Businesswomen Awards over the past two years and is supporting Spark Tees Valley to develop a set of resources focused on STEM for 14 local primary schools located around the Wilton site .
“ The number of women working with us is definitely growing – but there is still more to do ,” said Jo . “ We have some fantastic women working in our organisation and we were aware nobody knew about them , so we wanted to raise their profile .”
The five Sembcorp women who have been shortlisted at the Tees Businesswoman
Awards in the past two years are Bailey Mercer , Hester Williams , Rachael Evans , Ella Snaith and Jo Potter herself .
Hester , Sembcorp UK ’ s first female process engineering manager , won the Breaking the Mould category in 2024 , while Rachael was shortlisted in Best Newcomer category . Both are keen to encourage other young girls and women to take advantage of the many opportunities available on Teesside .
Hester , 47 , says : “ Just follow what you enjoy – and if you ’ re like me and you enjoy maths and physics , you could have a really interesting career in something related to STEM .
“ If you like problem-solving , making improvements and looking at information and data to make sense of it , this is a career that can give you lots of opportunities .”
Rachael , 33 , also urges other young women : “ Don ’ t be put off by preconceptions that engineering is male dominated .”
This is advice backed up by the fact that when Hester went to study chemical engineering at university , only about 10 % of the students were female – but when Rachael studied the same subject a little over a decade later , this had increased to 50 %.
“ There are a lot more women in engineering and more technical disciplines today - especially higher up ,” Rachael says . “ The variety of jobs available is phenomenal , and 10
You can ’ t be what you can ’ t see .”
26 | Tees Business