Women in Logistics set out to raise industry profile

The organisation is supporting National Careers Week (3rd to 7th March 2014) as the ideal time to raise the industry's profile. Vice Chair, Clare Bottle, will be spending the week visiting schools, highlighting the benefits of a career in logistics to students - girls in particular.

Clare points out: "We all depend on logistics every day, but when it comes to recruiting young people, the industry's fatal flaw is that you only notice it when it goes wrong". In a parliamentary debate last June MPs acknowledged that careers advice in schools is too often obtained solely from parents and teachers. Consequently, children tend to aim for a limited range of careers which are readily visible to them.

A 2012 study of seven-year olds found that most children aspired to one of just twelve popular occupations: teacher, scientist, hairdresser, sports player, fire fighter, police officer, artist, actor/entertainer, animal carer, vet, doctor and builder. Girls' and boys' target careers were different, with a tendency to follow gender expectations, which was most marked in the case of hairdressing. Over 9% of girls preferred this career option, compared with just 0.1% of boys.

But the truth is that in the UK there are fewer than 250,000 jobs in hair and beauty: the industry is simply too small to satisfy the aspirations of 9% of schoolgirls. Yet the colossal 2.3 million jobs in logistics are largely being overlooked. Women in Logistics UK is launching a new campaign during National Careers Week, promoting a stark message to girls across the UK: "Hairdressing? There are ten times as many jobs in Logistics".

National Careers Week - www.nationalcareersweek.com

About Women in Logistics: Women in Logistics UK (www.womeninlogistics.org.uk) is a networking & campaigning organisation with over 3,500 members.

About Clare Bottle: With over 20 years logistics experience, including work for Transport for London, M&S and Lafarge Tarmac, Clare Bottle is a former Director of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport UK (www.ciltuk.org.uk) and is currently Vice-Chair of Women in Logistics UK and a Trustee of the transport and logistics charity Transaid (www.transaid.org). She may be contacted via Twitter @clarebottle