SIXTH-form girls from around the country visited the North-East last week for a course designed to encourage more women to go into engineering.

Forty students are attending Insight 2001, a week-long engineering taster course for young women, at Newcastle University.

The course offers an introduction to engineering and includes talks by experts, visits to industry and hands-on project work at the university.

During the week the girls visited Gateshead Millennium Bridge and talked to John Johnson, Gateshead Borough Council's director of design and construction.

He said: "I am keen to promote engineering among students generally and among girls in particular because the profession is desperately short of female talent."

Kate Dickinson, 17, who attends Lord Lawson of Beamish School, in Birtley, Tyne and Wear, was one of the students taking part.

She said: "I haven't really decided what career I want to follow yet, so it's good to be getting an idea of different types of engineering work that are available."