IIR forms careers working group
3rd August 2016
FRANCE: The International Institute of Refrigeration has established a new working group to tackle the need to encourage more young people into the refrigeration industry.
The new CaRe (Careers in Refrigeration ) working group announced today will be chaired by Dr Catarina Marques, currently r&d manager at UK commercial refrigeration company Adande.
The establishment of the new working group follows the IIR’s organisation of a student and senior researchers’ speed networking event and its first Women in Refrigeration networking workshop at the 24th International Congress of Refrigeration in Japan last year.
The IIR estimates that approximately four jobs out of 1000 are linked to the manufacturing, installation, maintenance and servicing of refrigeration equipment. Refrigeration, it says, is a thriving industry, which offers excellent career opportunities for people with all kinds of interests and skills.
“In addition,” says the IIR, “women are still significantly and visibly under-represented in the refrigeration industry and diversity does matter; statistics show that companies are 15% more likely to perform better if they are gender diverse.”
Introduced into refrigeration during an internship at Bristol University, Dr Catarina Marques has a degree in food science and completed an industrial CASE award PhD at London South Bank University (LSBU), where she was previously a research fellow. She is a member of the IIR and the UK’s Institute of Refrigeration.
