This month we celebrate rising star at Make UK, Rose Sargent, Policy Adviser EDI Lead and TAF Women’s 30 Under 30 award winner. Here, she talks to our editor about the strategic importance of diversity, the perception of manufacturing, and her work with SMEs in Kent and Medway.

After studying law at Cambridge, Rose Sargent joined prominent trade body Make UK as an intern, before being offered a permanent role as Policy Advisor. Excelling within this role, Rose now works on employment and skills, and leads on EDI policy in manufacturing.

Speaking with our editor, Rose admitted that her exposure to manufacturing had been limited prior to Make UK: “I don’t think I really had a meaningful understanding of exactly how much the manufacturing sector contributes to the UK.”

Today, her role involves challenging outdated perceptions of the sector to encourage women and other underrepresented demographics into manufacturing. While there is an ethical responsibility to ensure fair opportunity for all, Rose pointed out that diversity is also a strategic advantage.

Quoting Alexia Williams, who she described as a phenomenal woman in engineering, Rose said, “We have to start fishing from both sides of the pond” because women make up just 28% of the manufacturing workforce and yet comprise 50% of UK population. For a sector with over 50,000 vacancies, women represent an underutilised resource.

In her work with SME manufacturers in the Kent and Medway area as part of the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), she’s found manufacturers to be very receptive to EDI initiatives, but “actually being able to recruit more women and people from other underrepresented backgrounds is quite tricky.”

This stems from outdated perceptions of manufacturing, as well as societal expectations and biases, sometimes preserved by parents who continue to be more likely to encourage their sons into manufacturing careers than their daughters.

Rose believes that there’s still a lot of work to be done in raising manufacturing’s profile amongst unrepresented demographics, and as a lack of representation is preventative, positive role models are vital. Rose knows of at least one instance a student quitting her engineering and tech apprenticeship because she was the only woman and had felt isolated. Sadly, based on her discussions with women across the industry, “it’s not an uncommon story,” she reflected.

She believes it’s vital to continue having these conversations and feels privileged to be able to do so. “I think it’s really fulfilling. Because when you can have those discussions, you are making a genuinely tangible difference, both in my capacity as an EDI lead, but also because I’m very keen on opening up access for people in all kinds of spaces.”

On top of the numerous initiatives the Make UK team will lead this year, including National Manufacturing Day and the government sponsored Equality Taskforce, they have published an Industrial Strategy tracker, which Rose explained is for “holding the government to account” on implementation of promises made in the industrial strategy. To find out more about these initiatives and the Industrial Strategy tracker, visit Make UK’s website.

makeuk.org