JOBS for the girls was the theme of the day when staff at the Royal Preston Hospital took their daughters to work with them.

Around 35 girls spent the day 'shadowing' hospital bosses in a scheme aimed at giving them an insight into traditionally male professions.

But one girl who already knows all about the heights women can aspire to, is 11-year-old Charlotte Grundy whose mum Beryl has a top job at the Royal Preston.

Beryl Grundy is the complaints and legal affairs manager and she admits her success had nothing to do with striving.

She said: "It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I started off as a telephonist at the old infirmary."

Charlotte who attends Brockholes Wood school in Ribbleton, spent the day observing bosses in the Neuroscience Department.

She said: "I would like to work in a hospital but I couldn't work with patients, not giving injections or taking blood, anyway."

Other girls spent the day with staff from the departments of medical engineering, pathology, radiography and development directorate where there were lots of women in senior management positions to set them an example. More than 80 per cent of staff at the hospital are women.

Senior personnel officer Elizabeth Baker said: "We have tried to encourage them to shadow people in senior management positions particularly in male dominated areas. The idea is to make them think about jobs they would not normally think about."

By the year 2001, it is predicted that women will make up 45 per cent of the civilian work force.

Like mother, like daughter: Beryl and Charlotte Grundy.

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