Namibian girls inspired to pursue engineering jobs

In July 2019, De Beers Group launched a three-year partnership with WomEng, a global organisation with a mission to attract, develop and retain a pipeline of female engineering talent to address the severe shortage of women in engineering.The De Beers Group WomEng partnership spanned initiatives in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa with three key focus areas aimed at developing the next generation of skilled women.Despite challenges presented by Covid-19, more than 2 200 students were reached by the end of 2021 through a GirlEng programme for school students and a fellowship programme for female university students studying engineering degrees.Spark an interestWomEng held a workshop in Windhoek in July followed by another at Keetmanshoop.Tangy Mugivhi, WomEng spokesperson, said that it was not the first time the team has been to Namibia, and they found the experience inspiring."We hosted a session in Windhoek that brought different schools from the surrounding areas together. We recently hosted another one at Suiderlig High School, and we had other schools in the area attend."She said "the feedback has been amazing and very positive. The girls immerse themselves in the whole event, and I think we come out of the sessions with more future engineers," Mugivhi said.She said that their core philosophy is the promotion of STEM, focusing on engineering and technology from primary school to industry."We believe that cognitive and behavioural skills are vital for the engineering workforce."Beyond these skills, it is important for girls and women to have mentorship and leadership development opportunities to create a virtuous cycle of women participating in STEM fields."We plan to reach our goal of impacting 10 000 girls and women in STEM by 2030 and hopefully build further programmes to succeed the GirlEng programme to further educate and encourage young women and girls to pursue careers in male dominated fields," Mugivhi said.ForwardsOn International Women’s Day 2022, De Beers Group proudly announced an extension to its original partnership with WomEng for a further three years, expanding the reach to cover all four of the countries where De Beers discovers diamonds and placing a greater focus on supporting women and girls to pursue careers in sustainability-related fields.The extension of the partnership will play an important role as De Beers strives to achieve its goal to engage 10 000 girls and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by 2030 as part of its wider Building Forever sustainable goals.WomEng is a multi-award-winning social enterprise working since 2006 to develop a diverse and inclusive engineering and technology workforce through education and technology. WomEng is the non-profit subsidiary of WomHub, a boutique incubator and co-working hub supporting female-led innovation and building diverse teams through our technology, consulting, and advisory services.

Namibian girls inspired to pursue engineering jobs

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-09

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Namibian girls inspired to pursue engineering jobs

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-09

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