A YOUNG graduate at Reading's atomic weapons facility is demanding more is done to help women get into engineering.

Last Friday was the third ever Women in Engineering Day and AWE graduate Catriona Hudson is calling on employers to try and get more women into engineering.

Catriona Hudson joined the team nine months ago and is encouraging more girls to follow her footsteps.

"Unfortunately there are still a lack of females in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) roles," she said.

"I think there could be a perception that women don’t always fit into these roles but in my experience women make great scientists and engineers as we are diligent and meticulous.

"This is my first job since leaving university in June 2016. As a Graduate Engineer I am on a rotational placement scheme.

"I enjoy the variety of being able to rotate placements and see different aspects of the business.

"At the moment my placement is really exciting as I am getting to see real manufacturing processes.

“One part of my job that I really enjoy is getting involved in outreach activities.

"We get to go out to local schools to encourage and promote STEM. We also get involved in Teentech which is a challenge for local school pupils to solve STEM challenges.

"I’ve also been lucky enough to become a schools mentor for a pupil.

"The advice I would give to anyone who was thinking about a career in STEM is to be determined and don’t be put off by the current ratios of girls to boys.

"When I was at university studying Mechanical Engineering, we started with about 10 girls and 110 boys, but by the time we finished our course we had gained girls and quite a few of the boys had dropped out."

The day of action was set up by the Women's Engineering Society in 2014.