Earlier this year, ScotRail has appointed its first female Engineering Director, Syeda Ghufran. The appointment was announced ahead of International Women in Engineering Day in June.
Ms Ghufran joined ScotRail in 2010 as an Engineering Management Trainee, gaining valuable hands-on train maintenance experience, and was more recently Head of Engineering Depots – the first female to hold that role.
Since 2013, she has delivered many engineering projects, including train reliability modifications, WiFi roll-out, and the installation of Driver Advisory Systems (DAS) – a GPS system which accurately tracks a train’s location and advises the driver what speed to go, so that the train arrives on time.
ScotRail is committed to equality and encouraging more women to join the railway through graduate, apprenticeship, and internship programmes. The train operating company’s recent intake of Engineering Apprentices are 50-per-cent female.
Recent research from Skills Development Scotland has revealed the number of females joining the technology sector has risen by more than 30%.
Analysis of the most recent ONS Annual Population Survey showed that the number of women in tech has risen from 18% to 23.4% in the last two years, and has more than doubled in the last eight (rising from 10,300 in 2010, up to 24,000 in 2018).
Mentoring in schools; the introduction of digital skills into broader subjects such as languages, art and music; the creation of best practice guides and tool kits for employers, and a real focus by colleges and universities to address the gender gap were all cited as reasons for the positive trend.
ScotRail is committed to continue working to create more opportunities for women across the board in all aspects of our workforce. We hope her appointment will encourage more young women and girls to consider a career in engineering with ScotRail.
ScotRail Engineering Director Syeda Ghufran said: “I’m really excited to lead a great team of engineers who will help us deliver a great customer service, and build the best railway Scotland has ever had.
“I want to change perceptions and encourage more young women to consider engineering as a viable and rewarding career.”
