School students to quiz panellists on International Women in Engineering Day.
Young Member Roshni Wijesekera BEng MSc (RES) AMIMechE is part of a group collaborating across professional engineering institutions to raise awareness of engineering careers for young women and celebrate the achievements of women in the profession. Roshni, a fire engineer, says female role models have the power to connect girls with engineering as a future career. How did you choose engineering as your academic and career path? I grew up in Sri Lanka and there it is seen as a good thing to study engineering. It felt like it was a subject open to me although I didn’t really know what engineering was. It’s fair to say that ‘become an engineer’ was on a par with ‘become a doctor’. I just knew I wanted to do something practical with the subjects I enjoyed, maths and physics, so I chose to study mechanical engineering at university. Many school students in the UK think choosing engineering means you’ll become a mechanic. I’m glad I didn’t face the hurdle of that misconception. I work a lot on infrastructure projects and now I can walk past a station, for example, and have a sense of pride that I contributed to it. What is the profession like these days for female engineers? The fact is that women make up only 9% of the engineering population in the UK. Most engineering industries are male dominated and you don’t see as many women in higher director positions compared to women in graduate positions. Something is stopping many women going right to the top. I think it’s important for a lot more female engineers go into schools and STEM clubs to talk about engineering so girls can see they have plenty in common with the role models in front of them and be inspired to choose engineering careers. What does the Institution do to promote engineering to girls? I get involved in a lot of outreach activities through the Institution and it seems to me that there is a high proportion of women taking part in STEM events. Volunteers in all UK regions know how important it is to engage girls to address the skills gap. The Institution’s Greater London Region YMP recognises that we should mark INWED every year and we’re building on the success of 2016’s events. It’s probably the biggest national or international engineering diversity event that we can engage with. As the UK has the lowest contingent of female engineers compared to other countries in Europe there’s clearly a long way to go to improve that. What does International Women in Engineering Day aim to achieve? We aim to raise awareness of the shortage of engineers in the industry and celebrate the accomplishments of many successful female engineers. We also want girls to understand and feel inspired by the amazing opportunities engineering careers can offer. The Women’s Engineering Society (WES) releases a list of 50 women role models in the Daily Telegraph to mark the day and I think these examples have a strong impact. Tell us about the events that you are organising on 23 June Our organising committee combines several PEIs, including the Institution, ICE, IChemE, CIWEM and ITS UK. We believe we will have more impact if we collaborate and spread our message widely – and participants will benefit from the great scope of engineering activity and experience. For school students, we are holding an exciting panel debate at One Birdcage Walk, transmitted to schools through a live webinar. It will be chaired by structural engineer and media presenter Roma Agrawal, who will put questions received via twitter to our panellists. It’s going to be lively and challenging, as the four young panellists from different engineering industries will be arguing for the last place in a boat in an apocalyptic scenario! In the evening, Institution members and the public are invited to a ‘museum lates’ style event at the London Transport Museum. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of women in engineering. We’re delighted that one of our keynote speakers is Baroness Brown of Cambridge.
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