Greater Anglia celebrates International Women in Engineering Day

Anna Cislo at Norwich Crown Point depot (credit: Greater Anglia) Greater Anglia is shining a light on a vital behind-the-scenes role as it celebrates International Women in Engineering Day. The day promotes the work of women engineers across the globe along with encouraging more to study and work within the profession. Greater Anglia today highlights the work of Anna Cislo who is based at Norwich’s Crown Point depot. Anna, who is from Hungary, joined the engineering team in 2022 as a yard assistant and spends her time moving trains at slow speed within the depot so they are ready for passenger service, coupling trains together to form longer services and ensuring safe movement of trains around the depot while they are undergoing maintenance and servicing. She also refuels the trains and checks and refills their sand – which is used to help trains grip when braking in slippery conditions. These tasks all involve clear and concise communication where there is no room for misunderstanding, with safety being a top priority at all times. Anna was inspired to join the engineering team after working as a security officer at the site gate. “I enjoyed fixing stuff with my dad as a kid. When I saw two of my female colleagues, operations support manager Helen Dickerson and yard assistant Elwira Ciszewska, it inspired me to give it a go,” Anna said. “Working on a depot can be challenging, especially on nights where the work is time sensitive to make sure we get the trains out in time for the morning service. But as a team we work hard and support each other. “People on the depot are very friendly and helpful: no one is here to see you fail.” While engineering is a male-dominated industry, Greater Anglia has a well-developed diversity and inclusion strategy, one strand of which is increasing the number of women in the workplace. Anna and the team are eager to see more women apply for roles. “Greater Anglia is very supportive, there are lots of options and directions you can progress in. You can push your boundaries and see what you’re capable of,” she said. “It’s important to give everyone an opportunity and make it more equal: Helen and Elwira inspired me to join, so I want to do the same to other women too.” Martin Beable, Greater Anglia’s engineering director, said: “We have huge talent within our organisation and it’s great to celebrate Anna and the vital work she does on International Women in Engineering Day. “We have a wide variety of roles within the team, from the engineering and operational through to administration. If you’ve got the right attitude and experience, we’d love to see you applying for roles when they appear.” All available roles are advertised on Greater Anglia’s website, where you can also sign up to job alerts: www.greateranglia.co.uk/careers