International Women & Girls in Science Day celebrates women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). From the climate crisis to pandemics, women around the world are playing vital roles in solving the most pressing issues of our times.
In celebration, we’re hosting a blog series featuring women from across the Heart of the South West’s STEM sectors. In this blog, we speak to Bryony Venn, Materials Engineer at Leonardo Helicopters UK, about her career journey into engineering and her advice for girls and women wanting to join the aerospace sector.
Bryony first took an interest in engineering as a child, sat in an airport watching aircraft take-off, and questioned “why don’t aircraft fall out of the sky?” Bryony graduated from the University of Swansea in 2020 with a MEng in Aerospace Engineering, and joined Leonardo Helicopters UK as a Core Graduate Engineer in September 2020.
“My desire to be part of this dynamic industry encouraged me to specialise in materials and propulsion engineering during my degree. This granted me the scope to explore the industry’s demands, challenges, and opportunities at close proximity. I was given the opportunity to move around the company through different rotations in the engineering function, and I also completed an external placement with the Sales and Marketing team.”
“The graduate scheme enabled me to apply my university knowledge to the real world and understand the interdependence between engineering within a business model. While on the graduate scheme, I also participated in a diverse range of STEM outreach activities.”
Leonardo, based in Yeovil, is the ‘Home of British Helicopters’, as it is the UK’s only end-to-end rotary wing capability. Leonardo has built aircraft in Yeovil for more than 100 years and employs over 3,000 highly skilled people to produce helicopters such as the AW159 Wildcat, AW101 Merlin, and the Super Lynx. Bryony said: “Our helicopters empower aircrews around the world to enhance operations in defence of our national security, and deliver life-saving care when responding to emergency and rescue calls. This includes advanced engineering on innovative technology such as uncrewed platforms.”
Leonardo UK recently underwent independent analysis from the Oxford Economics research organisation, which reported that Leonardo’s UK operations contributed £1.9 billion to the economy annually, supporting more than 26,000 British jobs. Bryony said: “I think we are driving change through the sector by pursuing sustainable innovation at the cutting edge of technology. With our focus on high-value work, our employees were shown to be 80% more productive than the UK average.”
We asked Bryony if she had any advice for women and girls pursuing a career in STEM. She said: “Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do. If you can find something that you enjoy doing and you are passionate about, the skills and knowledge will come with time and experience.”
Read the rest of the blogs in this series.
Discover more about Leonardo Helicopters.
