TODAY marks the third annual National Women in Engineering Day, which promotes the growing number of women entering the trade.

BT engineer Laura Beck, who may be a familiar face to some Middlewich residents, has shared her story to help encourage more women to look into potential engineering careers.

Laura, 25, is based in Warrington but plies her trade across Cheshire installing phone lines and high-speed fibre broadband.

Before joining Openreach around a year ago, Laura worked in the military police for four years. This involved working in several countries including Afghanistan, Kenya and Canada.

While working for Openreach, she has remained part of the armed forces as an army reserve.

Laura said: “I decided to apply to be an Openreach engineer as I heard they were looking for ex-military and female applicants.

“I really enjoy getting out and about and meeting customers and I get a lot of positive comments about being a female engineer.

“Plus there are a lot of ex-military engineers in my team so I feel very much at home.”

O2 is part of a group of companies who recently launched a ‘Step into STEM’ campaign, which hopes to offer mentoring that will help women into careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

National Women in Engineering Day has become an international awareness campaign to raise the profile of women in engineering and the career opportunities available to girls in the industry.