ESB International throws in for women engineers

ESB International, the State energy company's consulting arm, is a big supporter of GAA sports teams. This is no big surprise when you consider that its managing director is Ollie Brogan. Yes, he's one of them: his nephews Bernard and Alan were on the victorious Dubs football team that recently won the All-Ireland.

The Dublin Ladies team unfortunately couldn’t repeat the feat, but ESBI is still a backer of the women’s game, sponsoring, for example, University College Dublin’s international GAA team, which caters for women born outside Ireland.

The aim is to help international students integrate into Irish culture. The UCD team is off to the Asian Gaelic Games in Shanghai later this month.

The GAA sponsorships are analogous to ESBI's push for female engineers. Joyce Farrell, ESBI's people and transformation manager, oversees a female development programme within the company, designed to help women reach their career goals.

“We are constantly looking for engineering talent, and it is particularly pleasing that we are seeing a rise in the number of female engineers,” said Farrell, who is shortlisted for an Empowering Women gong at the upcoming Women Mean Business awards.

Sport, Farrell says, “can complement a woman’s personal and professional growth” by helping them build their confidence and a competitive edge.

If you played GAA and you’re from Wicklow, I can also confirm that it helps you learn how to deal with regular calamitous defeat.