Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 2:11 pm on 29 March 2017.
Trudy is an excellent role model—indeed, she co-presented with me at the WISE event that we had to get women into STEM here in the Senedd, which was an excellent event. We’ve worked very hard to get recognition of all of the aspects of the report on women in a talented Wales—I never get the title quite right—which, basically, is a cross-Government and cross-sector—business as well—vision of how we can get more women into STEM and, indeed, of how we can highlight careers to young girls in particular by highlighting the careers of really excellent women in STEM technologies right across the sector.
I had the privilege to sit next to a woman who was working in the genetics field at the St David Awards, and she was the winner. Indeed, we’re going to look to sponsor her to do a series of role model events right across Wales, for example, to highlight the role of BME females, and their essential role, actually, across the STEM area. One of the things I’m absolutely passionate about is giving young women the right role models to succeed. So, the Member will be aware that we’ve been promoting the purple plaque campaign, for example, to highlight the role of women across these areas of Wales in order to give those role models. We’ll be including business, through Business in the Community and our Business Class roll-out plans, in that, and I will be chairing the cross-Government board to make sure that we get that on track as well.