By Jennifer Hughes, general manager of Transicon
The first time I noticed how early career paths get shaped was when I was a teenager. I went on work experience at a stockbroker. Three years later, my younger brother did the same. We were both well looked after and given time, attention and a proper insight into the workplace, but the view we were given was different. I was assigned to the admin department, my brother was taken onto the trading floor.
I don’t think anyone set out to limit me. That is almost the point. These decisions are often subtle, and made without much thought. But at that age, they matter. You are not just learning what a business does. You are learning where people think you fit.
Engineering has the same problem. If girls and young women mainly see men in the technical roles, if the interesting work is presented as something for boys, or if they are quietly steered towards the edges rather than the heart of the work, many will decide engineering is not for them long before any employer gets the chance to recruit them. That is not just unfair. It is bad business. At a time when engineers are in short supply, we are still narrowing the field far too early.
My own route into engineering leadership was through finance. I am a chartered accountant and worked as finance director before moving into the day-to-day running of Transicon. That background has been valuable because it gives you a clear view of cash, risk, contracts, performance, margin and investment. But engineering leadership cannot be done from a spreadsheet alone. Coming into an engineering business through a non-technical route means recognising and relying on the depth of technical expertise around you and making sure it is properly supported. That means having the right technical people in the right roles, clear escalation routes, and managers who understand the work well enough to make informed decisions. We design, build and support bespoke control systems and production machines, where engineering, manufacturing and services meet, and where problems rarely sit neatly within one discipline.
In projects like ours, the risk sits in the gaps between them: mechanical and electrical, electrical and controls, manufacturing and installation, commercial scope and technical reality. One team assumes another has covered something. A detail is obvious to one person but invisible to someone else. Different viewpoints help close those gaps, catching assumptions before they become expensive problems and protecting quality, safety, delivery and margin. That is how those gaps get reduced in practice, and why the mix of people in a team has a direct impact on delivery.
Some people know early that engineering is for them. Plenty don’t. Some need to see it properly before it clicks and understand that engineering is not one narrow career path. At Transicon, we have put more focus into STEM outreach and work experience because young people need to see the real version of engineering, the interesting bits, the difficult bits and the responsibility that comes with making things work.
We also need to be honest about the basics. Sometimes inclusion is not complicated. I was talking about the benefits of attracting more women into engineering while knowing that our own facility did not have enough women's bathroom provision to properly support that ambition. So part of this year's capex budget went into improving it. It is not glamorous, but it matters. If you want a broader workforce, you must look at the workplace you are inviting people into. Culture matters, but so do facilities, changing areas, PPE, flexibility where the role allows, and the small signals that tell someone whether they were expected or just accommodated.
In a smaller business, this comes down to practical decisions. How you define roles, how you present them, and who you invite in. Work experience and real environments matter to all young people, not just those who already see themselves in the industry.
None of this means lowering standards. Widening the doorway is not the same as lowering the bar. Engineering needs more people, and the skills shortage will not be solved while capable people continue to rule themselves out before we ever see them.
