Girl footballers talk career goals with Premier Twenty female footballers from Dumfries & Galloway took part in a combined competition and careers session on and off the pitch at Palmerston Park, home to Championship side Queen of the South.
Organised by Scottish Women’s Football sponsor ScottishPower, the event brought together Queen of the South’s girls squad with SWPL player Clare Doherty from Ayr United, Geraldine O’Kane from Scottish Professional Football League Trust and Mairi Elder, ScottishPower’s Sector Education Manager.
A fiercely contested morning session saw the girls 5-a-side teams take part in mini tournament on the Palmerston Park pitch.
It was followed in the afternoon by an interactive careers workshop and Q&A focusing on STEM careers, hosted by Eilidh Barbour, one of the country’s leading sports presenters.
Julie Keough, Brand Director at ScottishPower, said: “We’ve been supporting womens and girls football across Scotland for two years now and it’s been phenomenal to see the growth in the game.
“We’ve had a great football game at Palmerston and the afternoon’s session switched to a focus on STEM and what careers outside of football could look like. As a major employer in Scotland, encouraging more women to consider STEM careers is a key focus for us and the engagement from the girls at this session has been really great.”
TV presenter Eilidh Barbour was on hand to talk careers with the girls too. She said: “My advice would be if you have a dream, go for it. Whether that’s through sport or something completely different. There’s nothing stopping girls now going out and achieving their dreams and the fact that the opportunities are there and the investment is there is so important.”
Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, added: “It was great to see the competitive nature of the 5-a-side, and the inspirational Queen of the South Girls showing just what can be achieved when there is a desire to succeed.
“That spirit to succeed was also seen in the STEM session where there are huge opportunities for women to lead in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics careers, particularly here in Dumfries and Galloway with huge potential for innovation relating to our amazing natural capital.”
ScottishPower, a leading renewable energy company, became the exclusive Principal Partner for Scottish Women’s Football and the Scottish Women’s Premier League at the start of last season and is dedicated to supporting the women’s game from grassroots to elite.
ScottishPower is at the heart of communities across the country, whether it’s through the thousands of green jobs being created, the renewable power it generates or the secure, stable electricity it supplies – keeping the lights on from power to plug.
ScottishPower’s partnership joins parent company, Iberdrola, which has been promoting equality through sport since 2016, through competitions and federations in Spain and Brazil.
It supports more than 100 competitions, 32 of them as Iberdrola leagues, reaching an estimated 600,000 female athletes.
