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Women's Engineering Society eNewsletter
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Welcome to the newly formatted & mobile-friendly December edition of the WES newsletter!
Thank you for reading our newsletter in 2016 - we hope you have enjoyed it.
We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year.
In this month's newsletter we have included some upcoming events for your diary including the 2017 FDM everywoman in Technology Awards and the Women in the Workplace seminar. In the WES Updates section you can also read about the INWES Regional Conference in Germany that several WES representatives participated in last month.
Job listings are found in the WES Jobs section below or you can click here.
The Women's Engineering Society is committed to supporting women in engineering. Click through the following link for more information on being a WES member. It costs just a pound a week and helps us to do our work to inspire and support girls and women to achieve their potential as engineers, applied scientists and technical leaders.
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INWES Regional Conference, Freising, Germany
4-6 November 2016
Several WES representatives, including trustees, past presidents and student members, joined over 120 women engineers and scientists from all over the world, Nigeria to Korea, Switzerland to the US, in attending the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists Regional Conference in hosted by the German Association of Women Engineers (dib). The theme Science, Knowledge, Power flowed through the many inspirational keynotes, talks and workshops, which ranged from the technical, e.g. Big Data, to business, e.g. the marketing behind Opel, to personal development including development of strategic thinking through late-night poker.
WES lead the Young Leadership Roundtable where invited guests, an entrepreneur and aspiring astronauts joined in the discussions on the essentials for leadership, and Jo Douglas of the YMB spoke of the YMB plans and the #LottieTour campaign.
All WES members can take part in INWES activities. Do look out for future planned INWES conferences such as ICWES in Delhi, 2017 and another regional conference planned in 2019 in Scotland.
The conference was held at the same time as the INWES Board meeting and the launch of the INWES Europe regional network. This was the culmination of the excellent and hard work of several, including WES trustees Roseni Dearden and Milada Williams. Another WES trustee, Dr Sarah Peers, was appointed on the board of the newly constituted INWES Europe to lead communications. If anyone would like to know more about INWES Europe, please contact Sarah Peers on comms@wes.org.uk.
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Green Port Hull and the Amy Johnson Festival
Green Port Hull, an RGF funded project to help Hull businesses participate in renewables as part of the supply chain, invited WES to take part in filming at the culmination of the Amy Johnson Festival in September. Dr Catherine Dobson, Head of Mechanical Engineering at Hull University interviewed WES Vice President Sarah Peers on Amy Johnson and on gender diversity in engineering.
The resulting videos are available from YouTube:
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WES Student Conference
The WES Student Conference 2016 - Engineering Inspiration - took place on the 18 and 19th of November. The conference gave women engineering students the opportunity over two days to meet each other and talk informally with engineers at different stages of their careers about the options, opportunities, and experiences of engineering careers. The students gained confidence, developed skills and boosted their networking skills though CPD workshops, panel discussions and networking activities.
The event was hosted again by Aston University Department of Engineering and Applied Science, and would not have been possible without the financial and content support from our headline sponsors BAE Systems, Procter & Gamble and Leonardo, plus BP, Finning UK, Mars Petcare UK, Instron, and FM Global.
A total of 165 people attended over the two days - students, career engineers, sponsors, WES volunteers and staff. 25 companies and organisations contributed, supplying speakers and workshop leaders and staff at sponsor stands. A total of 118 students from 23 different universities attended, including 11 bursary spaces, funded by our corporate sponsors.
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Bethan Murray wins WES Prize
Congratulations to Bethan Murray who is the winner of the WES Prize at the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards Ceremony, which took place in London on 1 December 2016. Bethan is a Manufacturing Systems Lead at Rolls Royce.
On winning, Bethan said: "I am thrilled to be recognised by the IET and WES as an ambassador for a career that I get so much enjoyment from. I am looking forward to continuing as an advocate for engineering and hope that this opportunity means I can encourage more young people to consider the options available to them."
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Careers in Engineering Campaign
WES recently partnered with Mediaplanet UK on the 2016 Careers in Engineering Campaign in The Week and online. Read motivating insight from thought leaders and learn more about the impact of the skills shortage and the opportunities available to the generation in the industry.
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Graduate Programmes
Vacancies
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Funny Women: Funny Business - Self-development Event
4 February 2017 | London
Start off your new year by spending a life-changing day with Funny Women exploring business from a different perspective. It has been proven that 'funny' really is good for business and being able to use humour in your professional and personal life is both liberating and empowering. Funny Women's Accidental Conference series focuses on how to successfully manage your life professionally and creatively whether you want to put on a show or start a business. Our day of workshops combines performance-based skills such as improvisation, body language and mind fitness with business related topics including taxation, crowdfunding, marketing and personal branding.
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Robots at the Science Museum
8 February - 3 September 2017 | London
Discover the remarkable 500- year story of humanoid robots. Opening in February 2017, our next blockbuster exhibition will explore the 500-year story of humanoid robots and the artistic and scientific quest to understand what it means to be human.
Read more here |
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2017 FDM everywoman in Technology Awards
9 February 2017 | London
The Awards encourage greater numbers of women to work in tech, driving awareness of career opportunities, as well as showcasing the breadth and diversity of talent contributed by women in tech across industries.
Read more here |
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SMASHfestUK 2017 call for engineers!
16-17 February 2017 | South East London
SMASHfestUK returns to South East London to entertain the young people of Deptford and their families.
In the wake of the SUPERVOLCANIC ERUPTION we will need your help to build a survival village for volcanic refugees. We need you to engage with the young people and get them involved in the project, so engineers give us a shout! We also need volunteers from all other fields to make this work so please get in touch if you can help save Deptford from its Volcanic Fate!
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Women of Westminster: Pre-MIPIM Network
Westminster Business Council is a connections agency bringing professionals together through informative and engaging events.
We will be soon entering MIPIM season, an important time for those in the Property and Construction industry. WBC will be using this theme to give a voice to the successful women in this sector.
Our annual Pre-MIPIM networking evening brings together great speakers while creating a relaxed atmosphere of good company and networking to be had.
We hope you can join us on the 23rd of February to share your stories and make great connections with like-minded professionals.
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Women in the workplace seminar
23 February 2017 | Central London
Guest of Honour: Caroline Dinenage MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Women, Equalities and Early Years
Key topics for discussion will include the gender pay gap; tackling sex and maternity discrimination; improving the availability of high-quality childcare provision and the challenges for increasing the proportion of women in leadership and executive management positions within the British economy.
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The Big Bang Fair 2017
15-18 March 2017 | The NEC, Birmingham
Exciting theatre shows, hands-on activities, interactive workshops, excellent careers information, and much more!
Give your students or children a unique opportunity to explore where their future can take them at the UK's largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) for young people.
They will be spoilt for choice with 12 mind-boggling theatre shows, over 150 hands-on activities and the opportunity to talk to thousands of scientists and engineers from leading companies across the UK, including young people who have just started work.
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The Royal Society Awards - Call for nominations
Rosalind Franklin Award & Lecture 2017
The Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award is made annually to support and promote women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and the winner will receive a grant of £30,000 to implement a project to raise the profile of women in STEM. The call for nominations is now open.
More information about the Award, including terms and conditions and nomination forms, can be found on our website.
Milner Award 2017
The 2017 Milner Award call for nominations is now open.
The Royal Society Milner Award is supported by Microsoft Research, and is awarded annually for outstanding achievement in computer science by a European researcher. The nomination form is now online.
The closing date for nominations for both awards is 30 January 2017 at 18.00 GMT.
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All things engineering at Where Women Work
The University of Sheffield is addressing engineering's gender imbalance in a slightly different way: through children's literature. Encouraging more young people into engineering, the University launched its "Engineering Is" campaign to challenge perceptions of engineering and inspire primary school children, particularly young girls, to consider studying engineering at university. The campaign is based on a book called "The Crash Landing", written by the University of Sheffield's Women in Engineering Student Society members, where a little girl who rescues an alien by building a new spaceship. Further campaign resources include a cartoon, website and online games that appeal to a broad age range. See www.engineeringis.co.uk. It's hoped through the 'Engineering Is' website and reading the book to children, parents will also develop a deeper understanding about the world of engineering and how to encourage children into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
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Waterway Recovery Group - Call for volunteers
Waterway Recovery Group provides practical and technical support to waterways restoration projects across the country as well as providing skills training for volunteers. Through their volunteering holidays, called Canal Camps, they undertake major construction projects to restore locks, build canal basins and rebuild bridges. Canal Camps offer volunteers a fantastic chance to learn new skills such as bricklaying, machine operation, and restoration techniques as well as putting into practice skills they might already have!
If you are interested in finding out more about the Waterway Recovery Group or would like to get involved please visit their website: www.wrg.org.uk or contact them on enquiries@wrg.org.uk
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Balfour Beatty Returners Programme
Balfour Beatty is partnering with Women Returners to launch the Balfour Beatty Returners programme, a UK wide paid returnship that will run for 21 weeks, starting on 24 April 2017. The programme has opportunities across Engineering, Operations, Commercial and Enabling Functions (IT, HR, Finance, Legal, Health & Safety) in locations including London, Cumbria, Kent, Midlands, Manchester, Gloucester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. They are looking for experienced professionals who have taken a voluntary career break of two years or more and who can work a minimum of 30 hours a week. |
Looking for a part-time, flexible and funded retraining programme in engineering after a career break?
If so, we can help. Daphne Jackson Fellowships enable talented individuals to return to scientific research work after a career break of two or more years taken for family, caring or health reasons. We offer flexible, part-time Fellowships in universities and research institutes across the UK.
We currently have two Fellowships in engineering open for applications:
- Newcastle University - School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (closes 09.01.17)
- University of the West of Scotland - School of Engineering and Computing (closes 30.01.17)
Both opportunities have the funding already in place, and are part-time (0.5FTE) over two years.
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Post Career Break Fellowship at CERN
CERN has launched a programme to offer full-time or part-time Fellowships to science and engineering graduates wishing to re-start their careers. This is an outstanding chance for you to update your knowledge and skills working for up to three years in an international environment at the forefront of research. Deadline to submit applications: 28 February 2017. Read more here
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I'm an Engineer, Get me out of here!
I'm an Engineer is an online X-Factor style competition for
engineers, where students are the judges! It's running this March (6th-17th) during British Science Week.
For two weeks engineers will answer questions, and take part in live text chats with students all over the UK. Students vote for their favourite engineer to win £500 to spend on more STEM engagement. The online event gives all students a voice and encourages questions they might not be confident asking in front of the whole class. Students see that engineers are people just like them, while being introduced to the wide range of possibilities in STEM careers; it's not all hard hats and white coats.
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We would like to thank all our Corporate and Education Partners for their continuing support of WES.
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November - December
- 27 October - WES was invited to attend as a guest of BESA the HVR Awards dinner held in London
- 11 October - Sarah Peers was invited, as a representative of WES, to speak about how to attract women into engineering at the CECATS (Cumbria Education Centre for Advanced Technology) conference held at the University of Cumbria
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8 November - WES Caroline Haslett Lecture and presentation of Karen Burt Award
- 10 November - WISE Conference, attended by Emma England
- 18 November - YMB meeting
- 18 - 19 November -WES Student Conference
- 25 November - London STEM Roundtable, attended by Benita Mehra
- 25 November - NECR National Engineering and Construction Recruitment Exhibition, Birmingham, WES Council Member Fiona Okonkwo was speaker at the Women in Engineering Forum
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29 November - WES have been invited to take part in creating an open source creativity course for technical people. Watch out for further developments. Roseni Dearden and Sarah Peers took part in the first workshop at Konica Minolta, London
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1 December - IET Young Women Engineer Awards, WES held a stand, attended by Benita Mehra, Roseni Dearden, Kirsten Bodley
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8 December - Maritime Enterprise Innovation Conference, Glasgow, Ifeyinwa Rita Kanu
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13 December - All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Understanding the impact of disability and gender on employment.
Note that WES gets invites to several APPG meetings through the year, if any WES member is interested in having a say, please let the Cath Heslop know by emailing her at info@wes.org.uk
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15 December - RAEng Event - Launch of Equality Diversity and Inclusion Progression Framework for Engineering and Science, will be attended by Sarah Peers, Ifeyinwa Rita Kanu, Kirsten Oliver
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The Woman Engineer Winter 2016 journal is now available! All issues of the WES journal are available here. Become a member and get your own copy delivered to your door.
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