Veolia  has signed up to the Government's'Your Life' campaign, an initiative from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills to help encourage more female students into STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) career paths.

Veolia  is one of the first companies to make a commitment to the scheme - according to a recent Royal Academy of Engineering report, 100,000 new STEM graduates are needed in the UK every year until 2020 to maintain current employment numbers.

Estelle Brachlianoff, Executive Vice-President for Veolia UK and Ireland, commented:

"This initiative is critically needed.Veolia employs 14,000 people in the UK and we are looking for more female STEM graduates to fill these roles.Women represent half the population and we need to get better at engaging them, particularly when they are making important choices about their career path. This initiative is not just good for women, but UK Plc overall."

Veolia has committed to visit at least 20 universities across the UK by the end of 2014 to promote its STEM careers to female students. These range from bio-chemistry to mechanical engineering, from soil science to chemical analytics. It has also pledged to further increase the percentage of women at all levels in its business through genuine engagement with organisations such as the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion, the Women in Business Club at London Business School and the Inspiring Women Campaign.

Veolia made diversity one of the key strategic priorities in August 2013, starting at the executive team level - 38% of graduate applications and 31% of apprenticeship applications are now from women, and 83% of women at Veolia stay in employment after maternity or adoption leave - all well above the industry average. The firm recruits 61% of its staff from outside the waste and water industry.