MECHANICAL engineering is a non traditional area for women, with numbers of women students rarely exceeding 5 per cent. However, the women who have opted to study mechanical and manufacturing engineering in Cork RTC have done well in their studies and in the jobs market.

Their successes may encourage other women to enter the mechanical engineering arena. Last year, the first place in the degree class went to Eilis Ni Theibheannaigh, who is now working in Erups Engineering in Limerick as a design engineer. Her two fellow women graduates also got honours degrees and were among the first in the class to obtain employment.

Cork RTC recently flew Maria Quaid, a past graduate of the mechanical engineering degree, into Cork to speak at the 10th annual mechanical, manufacturing and aerospace engineering exhibition. Quaid graduated in 1991 with an honours degree and was one of five Irish graduates to be selected for a two year training programme at Boeing's US headquarters in Seattle, Washington. On completion of this, she was appointed by Boeing as an aeronautical design engineer. Quaid now leads a team of aeronautical design engineers.

She and four other graduates spoke about their work experience at the exhibition, held in March this year.

The department of mechanical and manufacturing engineering in Cork RTC offers courses from apprenticeship to certificate, diploma, degree, master's and PhD level. Sean O'Leary, lecturer and exhibition organiser, says that "these levels are complementary, interlinked and interactive as in an industrial environment".

The exhibition showcased the department of mechanical and engineering's achievements. It comprised five main sections, including an extensive range of applied industrial projects carried out under the auspices of the department in 1995-96. Three centres of excellence for training - the computer aided engineering centre, the centre for advanced manufacturing and management systems and the nautical enterprise section - were also be featured.

Another section was dedicated to the Irish aerospace and aeronautical engineering industrial sector, while the women in engineering section will have about 10 stands designed to promote engineering as a career for women.