My mum was a lab technician until she got married and then she left her career, because that’s what happened in those days. What I want to do is make sure that we enable careers, that people feel fulfilled and take advantage of the great opportunities that we have in science.
Amanda Solloway MP is the UK government Minister for Science.
Her career started at Sainsbury’s in line management and then she went to work for Help the Aged. Yet all the time she harboured a desire to get involved in politics and to become a Member of Parliament. But she looked at other people and their qualifications and confidence and didn’t believe she could become an MP.
Amanda did follow her dream. She says:
Because of my background and early lack of confidence I now try and say to people: you can actually believe in yourself. Whatever it is you want to do, just believe that you can do it, whether it’s engineering or mathematics.
My job is one of the most fascinating jobs, I think, in government. There are so many things that we’re working on. Research allows us to go to space, it allows us to travel in autonomous cars and it allows us to really appreciate this amazing, amazing world that we live in.
My goal is to make science and technology accessible to everybody across the whole sphere of science and technology.
Last updated: 28 July 2021