10 Sep 2019

A stronger presence of women in engineering is said to be important in the provision of holistic, targeted and inclusive solutions to the world’s biggest problems.

This was said by the Women in engineering Programme coordinator Ms Aditi Lachman, during a workshop intended to encourage young girls to study engineering courses in Orapa recently.

She said women made up 52 per cent of the population and were considered the world’s most powerful consumers, controlling 85 per cent of all consumer purchasing power.

She expressed concern that women engineering graduates globally were still below 20 per cent while the number of women in the industry hovered around 11 per cent.

Ms Lachman said an increasing number of women in engineering within any organisation or country’ presented a competitive advantage as diverse teams provided perspective resulting in better thought out solutions.

“Growth in the areas of science, engineering and technology is also a catalyst for job creation, social upliftment and economic development,” she said.

Ms Lachman said the identified top 10 skills in 2022 included analytical thinking, innovation, critical thinking, leadership and social influence as well as creativity,  adding that in future Robots would take jobs while drones would be used to deliver mail in homesteads.

Sharing her journey, one of the speakers Ms Tshepo Tshambane said there were only 12 women in the engineering department in Orapa.

This she said, was evidence that there was still a vacuum in terms of women representation in engineering.She said she switched her course to mining engineering in 2014 and graduated first class Bachelor of Engineering in 2016.

Ms Tshambane is currently a learner official at Orapa and has studied Bachelor of Science at the University of Botswana. She was sponsored to study Metallurgy in the United Kingdom in 2012.

She completed post-graduate studies in mining engineering in 2017.

Mining geologist, also Orapa Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines general manager’s technical officer, Ms Tumelo Botlhole, said the numbers of women in the engineering department was reducing with the years.

She urged the students to develop passion and interest in the jobs that were male-dominated.

She stated that for one to study geology they should have passed physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and geography.

Ms Botlhole started her job as a geologist with Water Affairs department in Kanye. She was later on recruited by Debswana and was sponsored to study a diploma in mining engineering at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.  After completing her diploma in engineering her post was upgraded to mining geologist.

One of the students from Rakops Junior Secondary School Ms Lebo Latiffa said the workshop had given her the courage to study mining engineering. ENDS