UTC Swindon’s Angela Barker-Dench to speak at first Women in Industry event

Angela Barker-Dench, principal at UTC Swindon, will speak at the first Women in Industry event, which the college is also hosting.

Taking place on 28 January from 5.30 pm to 7.00 pm at the UTC Swindon’s Bristol Street site, the event is an opportunity to hear about the career journeys of prominent women working in industry.

Women in the west of England who work, or would like to work, in industry are welcome to come. Attendees from Network Rail, Great Western Railway, AMEY Rail and Zurich are expected and all female students at UTC Swindon are invited.

Angela’s engineering career began in 1980, when she started an apprenticeship in electrical engineering with General Electric (GE). Here, she became particularly interested in design engineering and, sponsored by GE, through college and University.

During this period, Angela’s interest in teaching and training surfaced. In the late 1980s, while working full-time at GEC, Angela took up an evening role as an engineering lecturer at the Birmingham Metropolitan College, formerly Matthew Boulton College.

Angela joined UTC Swindon from Capel Manor College in Enfield, Middlesex, where she had been Vice Principal.

Also speaking at the event will be Jane Austin, head of engineering at Network Rail. Jane is a chartered civil engineer with 23 years’ engineering and project management experience in the railway industry. She oversees engineering for the company’s Western and Wales routes, which are currently undergoing £7 billion worth of improvement. Jane is involved in the Great Western Electrification Programme, electrifying the line from London Paddington to Swansea, the Crossrail programme to improve connections and speed up journeys to London and Network Rail’s re-signalling programme.

Women in Industry is a forum for promoting and supporting women who work in the industrial and engineering industries. Founded by the Western Route staff at Network Rail, the forum hears from female leaders in the west of England about the highs and the lows of their career journeys. This enables women to network and be inspired about opportunities open to them in the railway sector and the wider engineering industries.

Women in Industry will meet quarterly at different locations in the west. The meetings will be open to women in all industry sectors.

For more information about the Women in Industry event on 28 January, email Natasha.luddington@networkrail.co.uk or Amanda.hoyland@networkrail.co.uk.

To find out more about UTC Swindon, visit www.utcswindon.co.uk or call 01793 207920.

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