Author: louisacockbill

11,000 young people reached and a card pack for sale!

Author louisacockbill | Posted on

UWE Engineering’s Inspire Sustainability team have reached over 11,000 young people in the West of England with their Green Futures workshops designed to inspire children into green career pathways. The project was funded by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority to support the ambition for 2 million new green jobs in the UK by 2050.

In collaboration with local company My Future My Choice, the team at UWE produced a top-trump style card pack featuring 48 real local people in green jobs. The highly visual cards have proved incredibly popular with young people and adults alike, and in response to national interest, the team has commercialised the card packs and they are now available to purchase.

In the gallery below you can see the five people associated with UWE Bristol who were featured on the card deck – including Engineering’s very own Laura Fogg-Rogers who leads the Inspire Sustainability team. Each person featured has a corresponding online profile that can be further explored.

UWE represented! Top left: Associate Professor Laura Fogg-Rogers, Top middle: Professor of Future Mobility Glenn Lyons, Top right Associate Lecturer Roger Griffith, Btm: Cerise Mangat and Julian Mensah are both former UWE students

The Inspire Green Futures card deck was first launched in January 2025 and the team took them straight into local West of England schools and communities. The response has been incredible, with people amazed by the diverse range of people and green jobs possible. The UWE school delivery team are always hearing:

“Where can I buy one of these?”

So now schools, companies and individuals can buy a card pack of their very own – for just £10 a pack! And all proceeds will support continuation of FREE Green Future workshops in West of England schools.

Buy Inspire Green Future Card Packs for £10 each

Training for teachers and ambassadors

The success of the card packs has led to them being used as a resource for:

Read more about the training sessions linked to above and get in touch to enquire about training for your school or company.

The original project was funded by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, UWE Bristol recruited the wonderful “green” people and My Future My Choice designed the cards.

Get training to inspire schools in green jobs

Author louisacockbill | Posted on

Are you passionate about green jobs? Want to inspire children into the green sector & empower teachers in their eco-teaching? This could be the training for you.

When: Tuesday 25th November, 4 – 6pm

Where: 4Z002, School of Engineering, UWE Bristol, Frenchay campus

Get tickets here

The Inspire Sustainability team based in the School of Engineering, are partnering with Graphic Science, the STEM Ambassador Delivery Partner for South West England – to deliver the training.

This training session is for people passionate about green jobs in the South West of England who want to connect with schools to inspire the next generation into the green sector – both through sharing career stories with children directly, and through empowering teachers to use examples of green careers in their teaching.

Expect to be equipped with the resources, lesson plans, and insight into how to deliver engaging green job workshops in schools. The workshops are based on the “Inspiring Green Futures” top-trump style cards that feature 48 local people in green jobs.

Breif agenda:

  • learn a little bit about the background to why this resource was created, includingthe just transition and inclusive recruitment issues it seeks to address.
  • focused practical training – equipping you with what you need to go into schools and talk to children and teachers about green careers
  • end with opportunities to sign up to workshop days in schools, and to get involved in UWE led teacher CPD sessions, where you can connect with teachers and influence their lesson plans.
TicketS! Getting green job information into schools Tickets, Tue, Nov 25, 2025 at 4:00 PM | Eventbrite

Join the Women Like Me Mentoring Programme

Author louisacockbill | Posted on

The 2025 – 26 Women Like Me mentoring programme is open for applications from mentors and mentees!

Women Like Me pairs senior women engineers/property professionals in the Bristol and Bath area with their junior counterparts. Mentoring relationships are fostered through various events put on by the UWE team and their partners STEMazing. But this programme goes one step further – providing training and opportunities for junior women to engage in STEM education outreach within local schools.

Through this combination of peer mentoring and outreach, the scheme aims to boost female representation in engineering and construction careers at all levels. The mentoring side addresses retention issues, whilst outreach in schools boosts recruitment of women in male-dominate industries.

Women Like Me is an award winning scheme that’s been running for over six years and has empowered over 350 women. And you could be a part of this new cohort!

Big thank you goes out to Suez, Recycling and Recovery who are sponsoring this year’s programme.

Who Can Take Part?

Women in engineering or property professions within in the Bristol and Bath areas.

  • Mentees: We’re inviting women with less than five years of industry experience to take part as mentees. This is a fantastic opportunity to receive tailored guidance and support from experienced professionals.
  • Mentors: If you’re a woman with at least five years of professional experience, we encourage you to sign up as a mentor. As a mentor, you’ll receive training and support to help you guide your mentee through the year.

If you’ve been part of the Women Like Me Mentoring Programme before, we encourage you to spread the word within your companies and among friends. Your support is crucial, and you’re more than welcome to join this year’s scheme as mentors.

Register your interest in taking part!

Date for the diary!

Please sign ASAP – we’ll be pairing you up mentor-to-mentee in early November before the kick off event on 11th November.

Save the date: Tuesday 11th November, 4:30 – 6pm at Suez Energy Recovery Centre, Avonmouth.

This event will introduce you to the Women Like Me programme, with some top tips and discussion about mentoring and outreach. And hopefully include getting to meet your new mentee/mentor for the first time (!) as well as the rest of this years cohort. 

Photos from Women Like Me events in 2025

Find out more about the mentoring programme in the below video:

UWE Bristol named training provider of the year for closing engineering skills gap

Author louisacockbill | Posted on

UWE Bristol has been named Training Provider Skills Champion of the Year at the Enginuity Skills Awards for its commitment to driving inclusive growth in the engineering industry and closing the skills gap in the West of England.

The awards recognise individuals and organisations who are supporting the next generation of engineering professionals and fostering a culture of innovation, diversity and collaboration in the industry.

The Training Provider Skills Champion award celebrates an organisation with an outstanding commitment to learning and skills development that supports sustainable engineering and manufacturing growth through partnerships between providers and employers.

UWE Bristol has supported over 1,000 engineering and built environment degree apprentices since 2017, with achievement rates up to 100%. Its Women in Industry project addresses skills and diversity gaps by partnering with employers and Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths networks, boosting female applicants by 60% in a year.

This includes Women Like Me, a peer mentoring and outreach project dedicated to increase female representation in engineering and construction. Led by Dr Laura Fogg Rogers since 2018, it pairs senior female engineers and property professionals with junior counterparts, fostering mentoring relationships.

The judges recognised that UWE Bristol is working to close the skills gap and make the industry more inclusive through mentoring, outreach and partnerships.

Simon Flenley, Assistant Director of Research & External Engagement at UWE Bristol said: “We are so proud of our apprenticeship programmes, and the opportunities they provide for increasing access and participation and addressing under representation. This award reflects the hard work and dedication from so many people, underpinned by the critical projects that UWE Bristol delivers such as Women Like Me.”

Reposted from UWE Bristol news – 7th July 2025

Inspire team feature at the Festival of Nature

Author louisacockbill | Posted on

UWE Engineering’s Inspire Sustainability team took part in the Festival of Nature events in Bath and Bristol city centres between 7th and 15th of June – speaking to visitors about green jobs in our region.

The Festival of Nature is a huge annual celebration of the natural world, with a whole range of activities and events designed to engage local people in the environment. The Inspire team is taking part in these events as part of the Green Futures project funded by the West of England Combined Authority to inspire young people into green career pathways. The project has aims to see thousands of local school pupils and children with special educational needs, but also has an emphasis on family engagement – recognising the role parent’s play in shaping children’s careers.

“Create a wind turbine nature park” was the activity on offer at the team’s stalls at SouthGate Place in Bath, and Millennium Square in Bristol. Over three days, 750 people crafted their ideas for the nature park onto tablecloth collages, all whilst having conversations about the real people who care for nature parks and are involved in installing wind turbines in local communities.

One of the beautiful nature parks crafted by visitors to the festival

At the Bristol Festival during “Wild Weekend”, the Inspire team joined the UWE Bristol marquee and, with the help of a few UWE student ambassadors, added in another element to activities – challenging children to take part in a hunt for green jobs. Young people searched for posters placed around the festival marquees depicting people in green roles – including Engineering’s own Laura Fogg-Rogers.

Local child, Maisie, won the competition and a pack of “Inspire Green Futures” card packs.

Green Job Hunt competition entries

Also on at the Bristol event was the “Great Green Expectations” training session led by UWE partner Liz Lister from Graphic Science – to aid educators incorporating green jobs into their lessons. The Inspire team will be running more of these sessions for educators and ambassadors in the autumn – please get in touch if interested – engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk.

Photos of the team in action in Bristol and Bath – special thanks to Sarah, Nicolle, Dream and Keily from UWE and STEM Ambassadors Peter, Fadl and Ben. Plus Liz for running the training session.

The team had great conversations with a whole range of visitors: from connecting teachers and community leaders in to the Inspire resources, to conversations with a student wanting to use dance to promote environmentalism.

Two wonderful weekends where UWE engaged the community in green jobs – thanks to the West of England Combined Authority for funding this important work raising awareness of the need in, and new emerging opportunities for, green jobs.

Green Futures workshops reaches over 2000 young people in first 3 months

Author louisacockbill | Posted on

Engineering’s Inspire Sustainability team are leading on a new exciting project to inspire local children into green jobs (thanks to funders the West of England Combined Authority). Last year they recruited 48 local people in green jobs to feature on a top-trump card pack and hot off the printing press in February – the cards went straight into schools and communities!

Visiting 25 mainstream schools, five special educational needs groups and two community events since the launch- the team are are acting on UWE’s duty as a civic university to benefit the local community – raising aspirations for all young people and creating the workforce of the future to deliver Net Zero aims.

Inspiring

The Green Futures sessions have enabled young people in primary and secondary schools to discover what a green job is and how it’s relevant to their lives. They’ve explored the huge diversity in jobs (& people!) featured in the card pack, alongside hands-on activities.

The funding includes a focus on young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and in alternative learning provision (ALP) – so the team have adapted their sessions to engage these groups.

The SEND summits began in April, bringing groups into UWE’s own Prototype & Play lab. In May, that’s continuing, with groups also going into We The Curious and ss Great Britain – learning about green jobs in inspirational settings.

“Really interesting and engaging. Loved the career cards and how they showed a range of skills.”

Parent from a SEND summit

Volunteer ambassadors in green jobs are involved as well – as it’s always an inspiration to meet someone in person and for students to ask questions!

“The children loved meeting people from the cards – it really brought the session to life.” 

Teacher from St Werburgh’s Primary

If your child’s school would like to book in a session please email: engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk (we’re taking bookings from September as we’re fully booked until the summer!)

Connecting

At the end of March, the card pack launch was celebrated with the people featured on the cards, along with local business representatives, teachers and members of the local careers hub. As well as celebrating and connecting the amazing people who’d featured on the cards, the event also marked Retrofit Action Week with three speakers outlining how their roles contribute to making buildings Net Zero.

Find out more about the celebratory launch or explore the real people in amazing green jobs – their profiles feature here and include lots of interesting facts (including earnings ££), career routes and inspirational quotes. Look for UWE representatives – Glenn Lyons, Laura Fogg-Rogers and Roger Griffith.


We’re not just connecting with schools and businesses – we’re also going into communities. We’re joining in with local events and leading our own events in community centres – like St Paul’s Green & Healthy Careers Fair on 19th May – read more and get a ticket to come along.

Want to find out more?

More information about the Inspire Green Futures workshops can be found on the website.

The project is led by Laura Fogg-Rogers and Louisa Cockbill at UWE. Who worked alongside – My Future My Choice, the Natural History Consortium and Graphic Science, the STEM ambassador delivery partner for the SouthWest – to recruit people for the cards and now to deliver to thousands across the region.

Three Leader Scholarships awarded to UWE students

Author louisacockbill | Posted on

UWE Engineering is proud to announce that three of its outstanding students have been selected for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s prestigious Engineering Leaders Scholarships (ELS). The programme provides support for undergraduates in UK Higher Education Institutions, who display the potential to become leaders and innovators in engineering and who want to become leadership role models for the next generation of engineers. 

Massive congratulations go to:

  • Kate Wheatley, Aerospace Engineering Degree Apprenticeship
  • Leia Wright, MEng Aerospace Engineering with Pilot Studies
  • Neha Master,  BEng Aerospace Engineering

Congratulations also go to UWE Visiting Professor John Armstrong, who supported the three students and is thrilled by their success.

More about ELS

The scholarships help ambitious undergraduates, in engineering and related disciplines, to undertake an accelerated personal development programme, which will help them to gain the necessary skills to become engineering leaders, soon after graduating. 

Successful awardees receive:

  • £5,000 to be used over three years, towards career-related personal development activities
  • Dedicated training and networking events
  • The support of an Academy Mentor
  • Invitations to exclusive Academy events and opportunities 
  • Access to an alumni community of over 300 engineers

We hope to hear more about the students plans for the scholarships in the Autumn.

Plans for prototype invention revealed at children’s award ceremony

Author louisacockbill | Posted on

On Friday 5th June, UWE Engineers revealed early plans to turn a young person’s winning design into reality.

The Leaders Award is a nationwide engineering competition (run by Primary Engineer) for young people to design inventions to solve a problem. UWE Engineering is one of the Leaders Awards partners in the South West of England and hosted this years exhibition of distinction shortlisted, highly commended & winning designs.

During the Awards ceremony, Hollie Lewis, Lecturer in Sustainable Project Management, presented plans for a UWE team to build last year’s winner Elliot James’ design, the “Smart shower”. Hollie is heading up the “Proto team” which includes Electronics Mechatronics Technical Team Leader, Steve Regester and Engineering Students: Erika Aiwekhoe, Ruth Cockroft and Naing Tun.

120 people attended the celebration event to congratulate the winners and take a look at the activities UWE Engineering’s Inspire Sustainability team had to offer. The exhibition remained up the following day for the Family Fun day, where over 900 people visited and took part in a whole range of hands-on activities.

Hollie Lewis, Proto-team lead, alongside Elliot James, inventor
Hollie presents at the Awards Ceremony
Award winners & their families viewed the competition exhibition
Elliot James and his proud family

“Smart Shower”

Last year, Elliot James, pupil at St Katherine’s sixth form, won the prize for best Year 12 design – you can see his original “SMARTH” – SMART Bath – design below. The UWE proto-team have adapted this design and are starting to build the Smart shower.

Elliot James Leaders Award design won the Year 12 category in 2023

More prototypes!

Engineers from GKN, headed up by Ian Gent, Research Engineer in Composites, also revealed a prototype machine that purifies water.

Dean of Engineering, Ramin Amali expressed at the Awards Ceremony how wonderful it is to have so many local young people participating in this Engineering competition and having their designs turned into a reality!

Engineering’s Family Fun Day

Author louisacockbill | Posted on

Over 900 people across the city were welcomed into UWE Engineering last Saturday to explore a range of different science and engineering activities. It was a wonderful day and we’ve had loads of great feedback. Watch the video to get an insight into the day.

Activities included:

  • Planetarium show called ‘We Make our Future‘ about how we can use human ingenuity and engineering skills to make a brighter future for our planet (the Inspire Sustainability team commissioned this show which Explorer Dome created and took to COP26 as well as into loads of local schools)
  • Flight and Driving Simulators – two very popular activities provided by UWE’s Digital Gallery
  • Robot building experience – was constantly surrounded by kids and adults alike building and coding Lego robots
  • Immersion in Bristol Minecraft worlds – everyone headed up the stairs to design changes to their city in the digital worlds
  • Physics in the Freezer – David Williams provided an awesome show with liquid nitrogen and magnets
  • Wind Turbine activity – some examples of wind turbine blade designs can be seen below – who could generate the most electricity?
  • Anibotics – families flocked to the animations and free giveaways David Smee and his team had on offer
  • Eco-House – Deborah Adkins had her wonderfully interactive Eco-houses on display
  • The Tinker Table – children loved getting hands on using tools to tear apart all the broken down electrical items donated as part of the UWE’s MAKERS repair cafe

Funding supports inspirational Green Job workshops for children

Author louisacockbill | Posted on

We’re pleased to announce that the West of England Combined Authority will be funding the Inspire Sustainability team at UWE Bristol to engage local children with the Green careers needed to achieve Net Zero.

The “Curiosity Connections Green Futures” project will use real-life local role models to inform and inspire local children about Green jobs. 

“What do you mean by a “Green” career?” 
“Do you have to like gardening or work in recycling?” 
“How do you get those Green-y jobs?”  

(Questions from local children)

The new resources will seek to answer those questions – helping children across the West of England to understand what job opportunities there are to build a sustainable future for our planet, and how their skills are crucial to that transition.

New partnership to reach thousands

Leading the project, UWE Bristol are bringing together local networks to identify a diverse array of local people in Green jobs to feature in a top-trump card set.

Collaborators include:

The new project draws on the success of the Engineering Curiosity top trump card set released by the Inspire Sustainability team in 2021, funded by the Digital Engineering and Technology Innovation programme. Those cards have been an incredible resource in highlighting career options and the Inspire Sustainability team hope to do the same, on an even bigger scale, with the new Green Job cards.

The aim is to show not only the great expanse of Green career options, but also that people from all backgrounds can enter these careers. So the card pack will showcase diverse local people at all career stages, from entry level to CEO, who’ve taken varied career pathways.

The cards will form the basis of a hands-on green careers kit, deployed by UWE’s outreach experts in 100s of pop-up sessions and whole school events in the next two years. Sessions will be tailored for both primary and secondary school classes, with additional mini-Green summits specially designed to effectively engage children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and in alternative learning provision (ALP).

To maximise awareness and support for Green careers, the project will involve families wherever possible, and this will be a particular focus at big events, such as the Festival of Nature in Bristol and Bath.

Green ambassadors will go into schools with the UWE team to inspire children face-to-face. And online resources will expand on the card profiles, with extra careers information and guidance enabling children to understand how a Green career could fit their interests and skill set.

If you’re in a Green job and want to get involved, please email louisa.cockbill@uwe.ac.uk.

Back to top