ANGELA Barker-Dench, principal at UTC Swindon, will speak at the first Women in Industry event, which the college is hosting.

The event on Friday at the UTC Swindon’s Bristol Street site, is an opportunity to hear about the careers of prominent women working in industry.

All female students at UTC Swindon are invited along with women who work, or would like to work, in industry are welcome.

Representatives of Network Rail, Great Western Railway, AMEY Rail and Zurich are expected.

Angela’s engineering career began in 1980 when she started an apprenticeship in electrical engineering with General Electric (GE). She became particularly interested in design engineering and was sponsored by GE through college and university.

In the late 1980s, while working full-time at GEC, Angela took up an evening role as an engineering lecturer at the Birmingham Metropolitan College, formerly Matthew Boulton College.

She joined UTC Swindon from Capel Manor College in Enfield, Middlesex, where she had been vice-principal.

Also speaking at the event will be Jane Austin, head of engineering at Network Rail, a chartered civil engineer with 23 years’ engineering and project management experience in the railway industry.

She oversees engineering for the company’s Western and Wales routes, which are currently undergoing £7bn of improvement.

Jane is involved in the Great Western Electrification Programme, electrifying the line from London Paddington to Swansea, the Crossrail programme to improve connections and speed up journeys to London, and Network Rail’s re-signalling programme.

Women in Industry is a forum for promoting and supporting women who work in the industrial and engineering industries which will meet quarterly at different locations in the west.

Founded by the Western Route staff at Network Rail, the forum hears from female leaders in the west of England about the highs and the lows of their career journeys. This enables women to network and be inspired about opportunities open to them in the railway sector and the wider engineering industries.

For more information about the Women in Industry event on January 28, from 5.30-7pm, email Natasha.luddington@networkrail.co.uk or Amanda.hoyland@networkrail.co.uk.

To find out more about UTC Swindon, visit www.utcswindon.co.uk or call 01793 207920.