A TEAM of engineers who worked to encourage more girls to consider engineering as a career have been named as one of the best in the UK’s £40bn maritime sector after being shortlisted in the first ever Maritime UK awards.

Sophie Dent, Lauren Eastburn and Beth Howarth-Henry worked with Girlguiding North West England to develop Clever Cogs, a badge which has now been completed by over 20,500 girls and young women across the UK since it was launched to coincide with International Women's Day in 2017.

Since then the trio have received the BAE Systems Chairman's Gold Award , the company's highest internal recognition for outstanding effort, and earlier this year travelled to Singapore to work with Girl Guides Singapore to launch a new engineering badge called She Solves.

Lauren and Beth are based in Barrow while Sophie has recently taken up a new role at BAE Systems' Air sector.

The awards ceremony, organised by the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership and Maritime UK - the group which promotes the maritime industry – is due to be held later this month.