Award-winning Women Engineers

In November 2024, Freya won the ‘Unsung Hero’ award at the West of England Aerospace Forum (WEAF)’s 2024 awards, for her role as Chair of AeroWomen and for trailblazing at a young age for women in engineering.

Freya, who is a Mechanical Engineering Technician Apprentice in Yeovil, the Home of British Helicopters, joined Leonardo in 2021 and took up her role with AeroWomen in March 2023. She has since led the committee organising AeroWomen 2023 and AeroWomen 2024. At this year’s event, she reminded delegates that “While there may be more women than ever in industry, there is still a long way to go before the ideal 50:50 split. We must be more courageous – to take up more opportunities and not be scared of failure.”

As well as Chairing AeroWomen, Freya is also the Young Professional Representative for the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Fiona Clark, Head of Capability (EW Sensors) at Leonardo UK, won the Princess Royal's WISE Lifetime Achievement Award 2024, in recognition of her outstanding professional achievements and contribution to STEM outreach during the past four decades.

The WISE Awards celebrate outstanding women in STEM, as well as organisations that are making impactful changes to their gender balance.

The judging panel commended Fiona “as an inspiring example of a role model who actively demonstrates how a woman can rise to senior levels in an organisation without sacrificing her motivating values. Using respect and kindness, Fiona senses when someone is struggling, and takes the time to have a coffee with them and offer support.” The judges also noted that “this intelligent compassion is a rare quality in someone at her level,” and that they were impressed by her outreach work, encouraging more women to enter the STEM sector.

Speaking after receiving her award, Fiona said: “I am absolutely over the moon to have been given this award, recognising not just my work achievements, but also my passion for supporting our young engineers and encouraging young women, in particular, into STEM careers. The event was packed with amazing, inspirational women, all of whom had great stories to tell but firmly believed we are all ‘just doing our day jobs’. I’d like to say a huge thank you to my colleague, Olivia Freestone, for nominating me, WISE for the award and a lovely, uplifting evening, and to Leonardo for the last 40 years of fun!”

In June 2024, Lilly, a Quality Engineer, won the 'Emerging Talent' category at the 2024 Chartered Quality Institute Awards, which celebrate the achievements of exceptional quality professionals and auditors across the globe.

The 'Emerging Talent' category recognises the quality professional who, within the first five years of their career, has demonstrated the greatest impact on their organisation through the application of their knowledge and skills in the CQI Profession Map areas of Governance, Assurance, Improvement and Leadership.

In their comments, the judges said: "Lilly is a true advocate for the profession and raises the profile of quality in her sector and the wider community."

In 2023, Jainna won the Judges' Choice Apprentice of the Year at the Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards, which aim to showcase talent and diversity within multicultural communities through the celebration of those working hard to overcome adversity to achieve their goals through apprenticeships.

As well as her individual awards, Jainna was also part of the winning team for the IMechE Apprentice Automation Challenge 2022, where Leonardo won both the Overall Winner Award and the Peer Review Award.

In 2023, Sarah was named in the Women's Engineering Society's Top 50 Women in Engineering (WE50).

Founded in 2016, the WE50 awards is an annual event held on 23 June, and in 2023 celebrated women engineers who are engaged in safety and security: helping to keep us safe, wherever we are, whether at work or leisure, at home or online.

Sarah commented: "I am really proud and honoured to have received this special award. Its amazing to be selected alongside so many inspiring women, who are making a real difference."

In February 2022, Anna won the 'Rising Star' category at the 2022 WorldSkills UK Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Heroes Awards, which celebrate individuals championing inclusion and diversity (I&D) within business.

Upon winning the award, Anna said: "I was extremely proud to win, since I&D is something that I am proud to work towards. I am also delighted to act as a role model for the next generation of engineers, especially young girls, showing them that you can accomplish great things as a female engineer."

Nearly two earlier, in March 2020, Anna was named as one of the winners of the Electronics Weekly BrightSparks award, which ‘recognises the talent of some of the brightest young electronics engineers working in the UK today’. This was just six months after joining Leonardo as a Graduate Electronics Engineer in Edinburgh.

In January 2023, Kayley won the Rising Star Award at the 2022 Make UK Engineering national finals in London, having initially been named as South Regional in 2022.

She said: "I am extremely proud to be given this award as a female shop floor apprentice, and hope that the next stage of my career is as successful, as I take on a degree apprenticeship with the company.”

Kayley joined Leonardo as a craft mechanical apprentice, and will be starting her apprenticeship degree programme soon.

Sophie, who is a Production Material Support Planner, won the 2022 Business Apprentice Final Year award at the Make UK Manufacturing Award National Finals.

Following her award, Sophie said: "This was a huge milestone in my career, and proves that through hard work, commitment and dedication, you really can achieve anything."

Outside of her day-to-day role, Sophie was also part of the Yeovil Trainee Charity and Social Committee, which raised over £88,000 for the Yeovil Hospital Breast Cancer Unit during a three-year period.

Devon Ward, a Mechanical Degree Apprentice in Aerospace at Leonardo’s Yeovil site, won the 2021 Engineering Apprentice Rising Star Award at the Make UK Awards. She joined Leonardo's degree apprenticeship scheme in 2017, aged 18, having grown up in Yeovil and become very used to the sound and sight of helicopters flying overhead.

Leonardo was a desirable and exciting company to me, and I looked into its apprenticeships. I always had a desire to continue my education and advance my qualifications, so the degree apprenticeship scheme was the perfect choice, allowing me to do so while gaining the work experience and professional development I was eager for," she explains.

Devon was also part of the Leonardo's student and apprentice association committee in Yeovil, spending a year each as Vice Chair and then Chair – the first person to hold both roles during the association's 80-year existence.