Today (Tuesday 8 March), is International Women’s Day, and Go North East is championing its inspiring women that make a substantial contribution to the company’s services and help keep communities connected.
From apprentices to senior management, there are women in all kinds of roles at Go North East, including driving, engineering, marketing, customer services, payroll administration, service control and supervisory jobs, depot management, recruitment, training, support roles and more.
The company spoke with Mandy Davies, service delivery and control manager, and Melissa Millington, one of its fourth year mechanical and electrical engineering apprentices, about their history at Go North East, the best things about their jobs, and what they would say to women considering a career in transport.
Team members have also been striking poses and sharing photos across social media in support of this year’s theme of ‘break the bias’. Individuals and organisations are being encouraged to challenge the bias that many women face because of their gender.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the Confederation of Passenger Transport – in partnership with Women in Transport – launched its national ‘Inclusive Employment Journey’ initiative which aims to support the industry in recruiting and retaining a more diverse workforce, including encouraging more women into the industry.
Go North East were proud to offer exemplars of its own diversity and inclusion initiative – One Team GNE – to form part of the resources used in the Inclusive Employment Journey initiative.
Martijn Gilbert, managing director at Go North East, said: “We’re committed to encouraging more women to take up roles within the bus industry, and we hope today’s role models can inspire the next generation of applicants and rising stars.
“Gender is no barrier to working in the transport industry, as Mandy – our Service Delivery and Control Manager – underlines in the video. Indeed, many of the top roles in Go North East, and our parent company Go-Ahead, are filled by women, and this is how it should be.
“Along with our parent company, Go-Ahead, we’re looking to increase female representation to 20% by 2025, and we hope that raising awareness of career opportunities, and sharing stories like these, will help us get more women on board.”
To find out about the latest vacancies on offer at Go North East, visit www.gonortheast.co.uk/join-the-team.