Girls in Energy

The Girls in Energy programme is a one-year course that is designed to open young women’s eyes to the energy industry’s wealth of career opportunities. Delivered in partnership by North East Scotland College and Fife College, the programme delivers weekly lessons, workshops and field visits to young women aged 14–16 in secondary education.

Prior to starting the programme many of our students thought that a job in the industry meant working on a platform in the middle of the North Sea. The course helps students to rethink these preconceptions and show them the huge range of different careers available both offshore and onshore all over the world.

Since it launched in 2010 the number of pupils involved in the Shell-sponsored programme has expanded to reach over 150 young women each year, with further expansion plans in progress.

Each year the students are given the opportunity to undergo an interview and selection process to secure one of up to 20 places on a two-week industry experience placement that Shell offers at their offices in Aberdeen. The students get to meet over one hundred people from the oil and gas sector, where they can hear first-hand about the various roles and challenges in support of our exploration, development and production activities.