MORE than 500 female students will get the chance to learn how to get to the top from some of the North East’s most influential women at a conference next month.

Successful women from business, academia, the arts and the police aim to raise the aspirations of the teenagers at the North East Women Leaders event.

The panel includes Fiona Cruickshank, founder of Prudhoe drug firm SCM Pharma, Claire Byers, deputy director of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Professor Sharon Mavin, Dean of Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University, award-winning County Durham entrepreneur Sara Davies, Northumbria Police chief constable Sue Sim and Helen Fraser, chief executive officer of the Girls’ Day School Trust.

The event, for 16-18-year-old pupils from schools across the North East, has been organised by Central Newcastle High School in Jesmond. It will be held at Newcastle Business School.

Central High headmistress Hilary French said: “It still remains true that women are poorly represented in top jobs across the country and across all sectors.

“ We want to play our part in helping to change these statistics in the future by educating a generation of women who have the self belief, confidence and indeed the aspiration to make it to the top of their fields.

“The young conference delegates will be able to hear from, and meet, women who have already achieved, or are on their way to achieving, success in their careers. At the end of the day they will have a clear understanding of what makes an outstanding leader and what it takes to reach the top.”