A YOUNG mum from Basildon has taken centre stage to highlight a new programme supported by Amazon that helps women break new ground in their careers.

Genna Holliss, now a first-year student at Ravensbourne University London, studying Creative Computing, has benefitted from a new bursary programme with the Royal Academy of Engineering to support young women.

Genna lives in Basildon with her two young children, who are seven and four years old.

She explains that parenthood and struggles in school initially held her back from higher education: "From the age of six when I was diagnosed with ADHD I struggled at school. My concentration skills were not very good and I had to really battle every day to come out of school with good grades."

But Genna's passion for technology shone through at college, where she had returned to take a course on graphic design. She went on to take part in an Amazon Web Services (AWS) project in partnership with the Career Colleges Trust, collaborating with her local community to build an app designed to tackle knife crime.

That experience inspired Genna to think about careers in tech, and later she jumped at the chance to get involved with opportunities available through Amazon Future Engineer.

"The bursary has made my university experience easier, not having to worry about how I'm going to pay for travel, food and other necessities."

She chose her course for its blend of technical skills and creativity, and particularly enjoys working with Virtual Reality (VR) applications: "I hope within five years I'm in a stable career as a Junior Software Engineer or Developer – there really aren't many women in these roles, and I'd love to help close the gap."

"It really means a lot to me that the team at Amazon and at my university are recognising my hard work and achievements. Their belief in me will really help to fulfil my potential."

The Royal Academy of Engineering is working with Amazon to launch a new Amazon Future Engineer bursary scheme. Twelve awards, worth £5,000 a year for up to four years, will be made available to students progressing from A level or technical education courses to university for the 2021/22 academic year. The new bursaries will help students who demonstrate a drive and passion for computing and engineering, and an understanding of how innovation and creativity in these fields can help solve some of the world's greatest challenges.

Women are still significantly underrepresented in engineering and technology in higher education. UCAS data on university application and acceptance figures for the 2020 cycle highlighted that women represent just 16% and 18% of accepted applications to computing and engineering degrees respectively. At the current rate of progress, parity of women in engineering degrees will not be achieved until 2085.

Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: "The Academy and Amazon share an ambition to inspire and support young people to become the next generation of engineers, and I welcome the opportunity to work together in encouraging more women and girls from all backgrounds to take up careers in engineering and computing.

"We need a greater diversity of views and experiences working within these professions if we are to come up with effective solutions to the many challenges that society faces. At the current rate of progress, to achieve the same number of women as men on degree courses for these subjects would take another 74 years. We simply cannot afford to wait that long."

"Our new bursary scheme with the Royal Academy of Engineering will help more women become the innovation leaders of the UK" said John Boumphrey, UK Country Manager, Amazon. "More needs to be done to encourage women to enter these fields and break down barriers that students face. The Amazon Future Engineer bursary scheme is just one of the ways that we are helping to increase the representation of women in the UK innovation economy and exciting careers in computer science."

Amazon Future Engineer bursaries are open to students enrolling onto courses such as electrical and electronic engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and software engineering in the UK.

The bursaries will focus on areas of the UK that have been identified as social mobility cold spots— places in the country where opportunities and outcomes for young people need improving. Awardees will be invited to attend annual networking and training weekends and will have access to a community forum providing support from the Royal Academy of Engineering and Amazon.

They will also receive news of available internships, as well as mentoring and funding to help them progress from university into engineering and computing careers.

The bursary scheme is part of Amazon Future Engineer, Amazon's comprehensive childhood-to-career programme to inspire, educate and enable children and young adults from lower-income backgrounds to try computer science and related engineering courses.

Applications for bursaries for academic year 2021/2022 can be made via the Royal Academy of Engineering here.