Providing opportunities and flexibility for women at UKAEA

Created by VERCIDA for UKAEA

Claire Kimpton, a welding engineer for UKAEA, talks about the importance of female-friendly and family-friendly workplaces.

I’m an engineer – specifically, a welding engineer with a background in metallurgy and material science. When I was at school, I was always interested in technical things, science, technology and maths.

At university, I studied engineering and metallurgy and after I graduated, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I ended up doing a postgraduate qualification and then a PhD. But I got a bit frustrated with the academic environment and I knew it was time to get a job.

I sent my CV to a company where I ended up working for 12 years. The job was local to where I live, which was important to me at the time because of family and financial commitments. I wasn’t in a position to relocate. During my 12 years, I took maternity leave twice when I had my children, who are now aged seven and nine.

When I realised I’d been doing the same job for nine years, without many prospects for doing anything different, it was probably time to move on. I wasn’t really actively job-hunting, but I saw an advert for an interesting opportunity at UKAEA. I was keen to work in nuclear fusion, I applied and I got the job – that was 18 months ago.

As a woman in engineering, I have been quite fortunate and come across a lot of people who have encouraged me in this field, but there have been some difficult times too. It is still a male-dominated industry and I’ve had times where I’ve found it difficult to make connections with colleagues.

Sometimes, people are not as inclusive as they could be and there have been times where assumptions have been made about my capabilities or people have been dismissive of my role. Or the barriers can relate to facilities, such as the women’s toilets being a 10-minute walk away on a worksite, so I’d have to plan my bathroom breaks, or not having any protective equipment that fits me. Hopefully, things are improving for women in this regard.

And there are the barriers you put up yourself. It can be intimidating if you’re physically smaller or younger or a different gender to the majority of your colleagues. Your own perception of yourself can hold you back.

At UKAEA, I am finding it to be a genuinely woman-friendly and family-friendly workplace, which is important as a parent. While I do work with more men than women, I am really enjoying interacting with other women on a technical level. We have female engineers of all ages. It’s such a positive environment.

As well as having workplace groups for women, the local branch of Women In Nuclear is heavily promoted and UKAEA makes an effort to ensure women are represented in graduate intakes. I recommend that any girl who is interested in a technical career follow their ambitions. It’s great if you are interested in problem-solving and the work is interesting and varied.

UKAEA is very supportive of working parents with opportunities for part-time and hybrid working. I work part-time, which means I can pick up my kids from school and fit work around parenting requirements, but it’s not seen as a negative. UKAEA treats flexible working as a positive thing, they’ve really embraced it.

I’ve found this working environment so beneficial. My line managers and higher management are extremely supportive. I am not expected to work outside my contracted hours, but equally, I have let my managers know I can be available at other times. It’s a constructive, two-way conversation. There is no pressure on me and I can be flexible, just as my managers are.

On a personal development level, the UKAEA has been good in supporting me with membership of a professional engineering body, chartership and registration with the Engineering Council.

The fusion industry is very exciting at the moment. There is a lot of new investment and technology advances, so it’s an interesting time to join. There will be more technical challenges moving forward and UKAEA is keen to develop me within the organisation. I can’t see myself moving away from UKAEA any time soon.