Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) says it is worried by the domination of the engineering profession by the male counterparts.

APWEN National President, Mrs Felicia Agubata, made the observation on Tuesday during the inauguration of the Association’s Bayelsa Chapter in Yenagoa.

She said that the association was worried by the insignificant female number of professional engineers in the industry

She said the group had vowed to advocate, encourage, mentor and sensitive the girl-child to take interest in engineering profession to reverse the trend.

She said the association was encouraging girls to take seriously the core science subjects such as mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics

APWEN she said was also advocating for companies and organisations to consider the employment of more female engineers upon graduation.

APWEN is a division of the Nigeria Society of Engineers formed about 35 years ago with 28 branches and has its headquarters in Abuja.

According to her, the group has 300 members and since its inception has produced 15 national presidents.

“Our interest is to encourage the girl-child from the primary and secondary schools to begin to take seriously science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“We will soon embark on inventive building programmes to stimulate gender interest in the engineering profession which over time has been assumed is men’s prerogative,” she said.

She disclosed that the inauguration of Bayelsa chapter, headed by Mrs Deborah Agboun was to further commence the campaign and advocacy in Bayelsa primary and secondary schools.

The new chapter will soon organise seminars and workshops to mentor the girl-child in engineering.

“I appreciate the Bayelsa state governor Seriake Dickson for employing female engineers, I give him kudos and urged other state governors and corporate bodies to emulate him,” Agubata said. (NAN)

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