Institution news
Guest speakers are a regular feature, we have found that sharing case histories provides excellent learning opportunities.
At the March forum, the guest speaker was Victoria Allan, who shared her journey from starting out in a facilities engineering role at CNOOC after graduating to now being the Buzzard platform onshore mechanical support engineer. She gained CEng in August 2022. Victoria explained how the support she received from her mentor was invaluable and how she used opportunities outside the workplace to add to her skills portfolio.
She was pleasantly surprised to learn about the additional support provided by IMechE’s Business Development Team through their workshops. She also found the interview to be a good experience, not nearly as nerve wracking as she thought it would be! She commented:
‘I was honoured to be invited to be able to share my experiences with the IMechE Mentor Forum. I really enjoyed having the platform to share my experience and showcase my very positive experience with my own mentor and the application process for Professional Registration.
It was so lovely to receive such positive feedback and comments from the attendees after I had done my presentation. For me, it was really encouraging and showcased how supportive a forum it is, of each other and its presenters’.
With an understanding of D&I now part of the UK SPEC 4 Competence framework, at each meeting there is a D&I moment. At the April forum, which will take place on 4 April from 12.45 to 13.30, D&I is the main focus. We will be joined by Ian Mcfarlane CEng FIMechE, Director of Engineering at Altrad Babcock. Ian will share his thoughts and insights on the importance of creating and environment for open conversations around Mental Health. Ian says:
‘Mental health is such an important subject at a personal level, having sadly been affected by suicide over the past few years with friends and colleagues taking their own lives. Seeing how my own team was affected by the loss of people from our clients showed me that talking about mental health is crucial to a fit and healthy workforce.
When I lost my younger brother at too young an age and my mum shortly afterwards, my own mental health was challenging. Leaning the support of friends and family helped me (us) get through it. Also, utilising some of the tools my employer supplied me with helped me through some dark times. I am looking forward to sharing and discussing some of the tools we have at our disposal.’
Sandra Mulligan, Senior Business Development Manager at IMechE runs the monthly mentor forum on MS teams. If you’d like to be added to the circulation list, please email sandra.mulligan@imeche.org.
For help with upgrading your membership or to book a 1:1 meeting to discuss a particular query, visit www.imeche.org/application-help