Last week a team of female engineers from BAE Systems developed a brand new bespoke engineering challenge with the Girl Guides Association Malaysia (Persatuan Pandu Puteri Malaysia). The challenge will offer 280,000 young women an opportunity to complete a series of fun and engaging engineering tasks to earn the new ‘Gear Up’ girl guiding badge.
After the success of similar launches in the UK and Singapore, BAE Systems and Girl Guides hope to build back better with young women. The badge has seen many budding young female engineers encouraged to take an interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), as well as basic computer programming and coding.
Toward the prosperity
The ‘Gear up’ badge was launched at the annual girl guides conference in Kuala Lumpur on 2rd October and will be rolled out across the various regions in Malaysia over the coming months. The Girl Guiding organization hopes that it will be a popular badge as it focuses on reinforcing the nation’s safety and economic prosperity.
BAE Systems has been working in partnership with Malaysia for over 50 years. Such nation-building programs will encourage young women to study STEM subjects as well as attract a strong and diverse pipeline of talent for their future workforce.
Gear Up the Nation
BAE Systems will work closely with Girl Guides Association Malaysia as one body to ensure as many young women as possible have the opportunity to earn the ‘Gear up’ badge, considering virtual training sessions and activities if necessary in order to follow Malaysia’s Standard Operating Procedures. Importantly, the two organizations will ensure that the tasks remain fun and engaging for the girls and encourage them to take an interest in engineering and think differently about STEM subjects.
Charles Hay, British High Commissioner to Malaysia, commended BAE Systems and the Girl Guides Association Malaysia on the initiative and said:
“With a track record in academic and research excellence, the UK is also a STEM powerhouse and an advocate for girls’ education. This initiative is a great way to empower girls and inspire greater women’s participation in STEM-related fields, thereby promoting equality of opportunity. I hope all the girl guides in Malaysia will take up the challenge and benefit from the program.”
About BAE System
- BAE Systems is the largest international supplier to the Malaysian Armed Forces for more than 50 years.
- For the past 20 years, our partnerships built around our Hawk aircraft have created more than 7,000 jobs and led to the creation of the world-leading aerospace industry, whilst our ships are in service with the Royal Malaysian Navy and our equipment is operated by the Royal Malaysian Army, all of which has supported a safer, more prosperous Malaysia.
- BAE Systems has invested more than RM50m to grow its Applied Intelligence business in Malaysia establishing a 30,000 sq ft regional cybersecurity hub in Kuala Lumpur now employing nearly 400 skilled engineers, the majority of whom are Malaysian nationals.
