The UK bus and coach sector has long been male-dominated, mirroring broader trends in engineering and manufacturing. Whilst a lot of positive progress has been made to address this imbalance, women still face significant barriers, including outdated stereotypes and limited access to industry opportunities.
To celebrate International Women’s Day on 23rd June, Women in Bus and Coach has recently announced a landmark partnership with the Society of Operations Engineers (SOE). This collaboration is dedicated to increasing female representation in engineering, with a particular focus on the IRTE Bus & Coach Skills Challenge, which Imperial Engineering has supported for 13 years.
The Women in the Bus and Coach initiative was set up to challenge and break down barriers currently faced by women in the profession. It aims to create a more inclusive service that endeavours to make sure that women have equal access to a career in the industry, designed around their needs.
With an executive consisting of senior female executives and engineers, WiBC provides a collaborative forum to share expertise and helps to develop solutions to make careers more attractive to women of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities.
Recently completed for 2025, the IRTE Bus & Coach Skills Challenge provides a national stage for PSV apprentices, technicians and engineers to demonstrate their expertise. By collaborating with SOE, Women in Bus and Coach seeks to increase female participation in future competitions, ensuring that women engineers have the same opportunities to showcase their skills and advance their careers.
The bus and coach industry faces a growing demand for skilled engineers, making diversity and inclusion more crucial than ever. Encouraging more women to enter the sector not only helps address the skills shortage but also fosters innovation, fresh perspectives and a stronger, more dynamic workforce. Through mentorship, professional development, and awareness initiatives, Women in Bus and Coach is dedicated to ensuring that women have access to the same opportunities as their male counterparts, making the industry more inclusive and sustainable for the future.
For many years, leading bus parts distributor, Imperial Engineering, has been an advocate of encouraging more female engineers into the bus and coach industry. The company actively supports apprentices at the grassroots level through a number of measures, including the hosting of training sessions with OEM suppliers such as Knorr-Bremse, Haldex and Wabco.
John Dwight, Imperial Engineering’s Sales Director, commented:
“More than half of bus customers are women, yet disproportionately, only around 10% of the people who work in the sector are women. Whilst we can all play a part to highlight bus and coach as an attractive career opportunity for aspiring female engineers and technicians, it’s really great to see WiBC grasp the nettle on this issue. A close collaboration with SOE and the IRTE Skills Challenge will definitely help to show how much the industry has moved on in terms of opportunities and inclusivity, which is supported by all of us at Imperial Engineering.”
