OREANDA-NEWS. November 16, 2015. SSE will find out tonight whether it has won a top award for its work in boosting the numbers of females recruited to SSE’s engineering training programmes in 2015.

The small team of Kerryanne Ashburn, HR Resourcing Manager and Laura Chetta, Resource Consultant, supported by the L&D Pipelines team began the task of increasing gender diversity in STEM programmes through this year’s recruitment drive.

They have been nominated in the ‘Campaign’ category at the 2015 WISE Awards, which recognises success in increasing the number of female job offers into STEM related vacancies.

Kerryanne said: “Gender diversity was at the heart of our campaigns this year and will be for the future. Within our adverts, video blogs on our web pages and throughout careers materials, we took the opportunity to showcase our female colleagues who have found success at SSE through these programmes.

“We see these females as role models and ambassadors for SSE and they have also featured prominently in different news items on our website having been recognised for their achievements.

“To be nominated by WISE is fantastic. However, winning this award would be an accreditation to our increased commitment in diversity and inclusion and would recognise the proactive approach we have taken to encouraging a gender balance in our sector, giving confidence to other females that we are an employer of choice.”

The ceremony is being held tonight at The Grange St Paul's Hotel in London.

This category is for a campaign which has generated an increase in recruits of women into STEM apprenticeships, degree courses, graduate programmes or employment in subjects or sectors where they are under-represented.

The HR Resourcing Team, Pipelines recruits for three main programmes: The Engineering Graduate Programme, Trainee Engineer Programme and Apprentice Programme.

Across the three programmes, SSE offers vacancies each year in engineering related roles and this number is expected to rise year on year.

Their work has seen significant impact on the number of female applications – boosting response rates by 44 per cent.

The Graduate Engineering Programme highlighted the particular success of this year’s campaign. In 2014, less than 1% of offers were made to females; this increased to 23.5% in 2015.

WISE inspires girls and women to study and build careers using science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).