Women are grossly under-represented in the engineering community. They comprise only four per cent of the workforce, according to the National Council for Educational Awards. This compares with 28 per cent women in medicine and 14 per cent in accountancy.

This pattern is not likely to change radically in the near future - 93 per cent of first-year engineering students in the regional technical colleges are male, while 81 per cent in the universities are male.

So, the NCEA has produced a pack to promote engineering as an attractive career for women. The pack, which has been distributed to guidance counsellors, contains a video, a workbook and a poster and careers leaflets. The video is designed to change the attitudes of 13- to 16-year-old girls. The workbook provides comprehensive information on all engineering courses in universities, institutes of technology and RTCs. It also provides six projects for students to carry out to determine their suitability for a career in engineering.

One of the tasks asks students to pretend they have been abducted by aliens who have a completely different kind of technology to ours. They are on a mission to find out more about how things work on earth, but apart from speaking basic English they understand only the most basic notions of science, physics, mechanics and engineering.

Students are asked to explain the following items to them - a car, a clothes peg, a tin-opener, their house, a pair of jeans, a pair of trainers, a television, a stereo.

Another worksheet contains a circle with 15 options, each containing a statement. Students are asked to tick the statements with which they strongly agree. These range from `I'm bossy and prefer to be in charge rather than follow other people's choices' and `I'd like to go down in history as a famous pop-star' to `I'd make animal testing illegal if I was Taoiseach.' The answer sheet, in true Cosmo style, divides students into four categories from the organised and efficient to the lover of fitness and sport, from the sensitive and clued-in type to those who are concerned about the environment.