AROUND 2,000 girls have now achieved a Girlguiding UK engineering badge that was designed by three young female engineers from Barrow shipyard.

Rainbows, Brownies and Guides can all enjoy taking on the Clever Cogs challenge that was created by BAE Systems Submarines' Beth Howarth-Henry, Lauren Eastburn and Sophie Dent.

Miss Howarth-Henry, 20, who is an engineering higher apprentice and a Guides leader, brought the idea of devising a Girlguiding UK achievement badge to her colleagues Lauren Eastburn, 20, a fellow engineering higher apprentice, and Sophie Dent, 24, an engineering graduate.

As part of a project to benefit the community, the Stem ambassadors designed 12 fun activities and experiments. Each is themed around a different type of engineering, from materials engineering to astronautical engineering. Together they created a pack which was taken on by Girlguiding UK.

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The engineering role models went along to St Paul's Community Hall last week to worked with 8th Barrow St Paul's Girlguiding and launch the badge for the Rainbows, Brownies and Guides from the unit.

The youngsters, aged from seven to 14 years, had fun trying experiments involving slime, egg parachutes and volcanoes.

Miss Howarth-Henry said: "The badge has really taken off. It's amazing. I don't know if we expected it to get this big, although we hoped that it would.

"We felt it was a real missed opportunity that no-one from engineering had worked with the Girlguiding.

"It is an exclusive female audience. A lot of the work BAE has been doing around encouraging women into engineering aligns with the aims of Girlguiding, enpowering young women and broadening horizons.

"We had a fantastic response and support from the company and Girlguiding UK."

Miss Eastburn said: "We are really glad we can reach out to thousands of young girls by teaching them about engineering and Stem. People don't always know what engineering involves. By running our badge we can show there are loads of different types of engineering careers."

Megan Walker, nine, of St Paul's Brownies, had fun doing the badge activities.

She said: "I've really enjoyed the experiments, they are different. I likes the egg parachutes and balloons."

Helen Ward, a Rainbows leader with 8th Barrow St Paul's Girlguiding, said: "The engineering badge is absolutely fantastic, we encourage the girls to look at engineering.

"It's a brilliant idea bringing the girls in touch with the local community and industry, and learning about aspects of work."

Miss Dent was recognised in the Top 50 Women in Engineering 2017 list, published by The Telegraph and run jointly by the newspaper and the Women in Engineering Society.

She was honoured for her dedication to promoting engineering among young people, including her involvement with the Girlguiding badge and working as World Education Services cluster coordinator for Cumbria and Lancashire, networking with female engineers around the region.