One of my favourites was where they were sewing the canvasses on the ships
I’m Emma, I’m 16. I’m studying at A Levels, maths, further maths, physics and German.
I don’t really know a lot about shipbuilding in Gateshead and women in shipbuilding specifically and it was quite interesting to get to know more about it and see what it looked like, who was doing it in the pictures and all the different jobs that they had.
Sewing canvas covers on pipes Image: IWM (Q 20085)
Splicing Cargo Netting Image: IWM (Q 20081)
One of my favourites was where they were sewing the canvasses on the ships because it showed that it was more traditional, things like sewing which could be brought into big industries like shipbuilding in that way. There’s also another one which was rope splicing, which again is fine work which was being used to build ships, which was quite interesting.
I would like to do more maths at university and that might lead to finance or accounting or something like that in the future. But also, one of the courses I’m looking at leads into theoretical physics so maybe more that route mixing physics and maths in that way.
I think, personally I really like all the science subjects, but also this school really helps develop pupils because we’ve got a big science department. We’ve got STEM clubs and there’s a lot focussed on STEM as well as a lot of the other subjects.
We’ve had a few talks off people about engineering; there was one about engineering and design and branching out into different types of engineering, so in like shipbuilding, in things like that. But also, in aerospace and some smaller things as well and that’s quite good to see. Because engineering directly leads on from the subjects that I’ve been doing so it’s quite interesting to see what careers there is that are involving engineering nowadays.
On Tuesday there was an event where different businesses and universities came in to talk about their business and a lot was engineering and there’s opportunities for work experience and apprenticeships which have been offered that I want to follow up more.
Emma was interviewed as part of the Women in Shipbuilding project.