High March school reveals Purple Plaque to celebrate former pupil Alison Ettridge, CEO of Stratigens
The unveiling of Alison Ettridge’s purple plaque will be at High March School on Wednesday 17 November 2021 with special guest Alison Ettridge, CEO of Stratigens, attending.
On Wednesday 17 November, High March School will be celebrating the work of former pupil, Alison Ettridge (nee Harter), who has won the prestigious Women in Innovation Award from Innovate UK by unveiling a purple plaque in her honour on the school site.
A twist on the blue plaque we’re all familiar with, Innovate UK is introducing purple plaques to recognise the achievements of some of the female innovators it supports, who’ve won its prestigious Women in Innovation Award. The Award also sees recipients receive a cash injection of £50,000 and bespoke mentoring to scale up and bring to market their disruptive business ideas.
Currently, just 14% of blue plaques in the UK celebrate the achievements of women. This highlights a national issue of the under-representation of women in the media, the workplace and in the education system, resulting in a lack of role models for children and young people. Innovate UK hopes the plaque will inspire pupils at the school to follow in Alison’s footsteps.
Alison won the Women in Innovation Award this year with her idea to help businesses better attract, recruit and retain female engineering talent with Talent Intuition. Her data modelling tool analyses the flow of female engineers including their journey from education to a professional role. Alison hopes her work will better inform the Government about the size of the gender skills gap and ultimately bring change to the sector.
Alison is one of a network of 64 Women in Innovation Award winners who are developing pioneering innovations to tackle pressing societal, environmental, and economic challenges; from delivering precision medicine to underrepresented populations, to offering eco-friendly materials for the aerospace industry and creating cutting-edge digital educational tools.
- ENDS-