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PAC Group Sponsor Ophir Women's Rugby Team

Pictured: Darren Leslie, Business Development Director of PAC Group, with Paul Shields, President of Ophir Rugby Football Club.

The decision to sponsor the team was twofold - PAC Group are dedicated to giving back to the local community through a range of sponsorship and volunteering activities as part of their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility, but this sponsorship was significant for the company for another reason - as an engineering company operating in a male dominated sector, PAC were keen to support a female team within a male dominated sport.

The lack of female representation in STEM careers and within sports like rugby are issues that need to be tackled, and PAC Group want to step-up and contribute.

• Despite efforts to promote female uptake of STEM skills, it is estimated that just 11% of the engineering workforce in the UK is female. That's the lowest in Europe.
• Today, there is little gender difference in the uptake of, and achievement in, core STEM GCSE subjects. However, only 20% of A-level physics students are female. This figure has not changed in 25 years.
• The proportion of young women studying engineering and physics has remained virtually the same for 8 years.
• Only 1% of engineering and technology undergraduates in the UK are female. In India, over 30% of engineering students are women.
• In 2015/ 2016 just 6.8% of engineering and manufacturing apprentices were female. Yet companies are 15% more likely to perform better if they are gender diverse.

Rachel Doherty, PAC Group Marketing & Business Development Manager, said:

"We are delighted to sponsor the Ophir Women's Rugby Team. Forward-thinking businesses and organisations will continue to challenge unconscious bias and gender norms in pursuit of an equal playing field. Likewise, strong female representation and role models in male dominated sport, like Rugby, cannot be underestimated in the pursuit of equality in the women's game."