Category: Diversity and Inclusion

UWE Bristol Secures Funding from the Office for Students to Expand Diversity and Inclusion in Degree Apprenticeships

Author engineering | Posted on

UWE Bristol is excited to share our success in securing Wave 2 apprenticeship funding from the Office for Students (OfS). This funding allows us to build upon the work of our Wave 1 activities around Degree Apprenticeships and our Women Like Me mentoring programme, addressing diversity and inclusion gaps in the workplace across key sectors such as engineering, digital, architecture and the built environment. The Mentoring and Outreach programme is led by Associate Professor Laura Fogg-Rogers from the School of Engineering and coordinated by Sarah Behenna from the Science Communication Unit. Links with industry will be led by Dr Samantha Organ from the School of Architecture and the Built Environment, along with Inclusive HR practices by Dr Amina Hamoud from the School of Engineering and Professor Sue Durbin from the School of Business and Law. The project will be evaluated by the whole team alongside Senior Research Fellow Dr Laura Hobbs.

An added dimension to this phase of the project is expanding to work in partnership with:

  • WISE Campaign (Women into Science and Engineering), whose initiatives focus on encouraging women and girls to pursue careers in STEM through various programs, mentorship opportunities, and advocacy efforts. Partnering with WISE allows us to tap into their expertise and resources to further enhance our efforts in promoting diversity and inclusion, particularly in engineering and digital sectors.
  • Association for Black & Minority Ethnic Engineers, whose initiatives include networking events, mentorship programs, and advocacy for equal opportunities within the engineering profession. Collaborating with this association enables us to address diversity gaps and provide support tailored to BME individuals pursuing careers in engineering and related fields.
  • Babbasa is a social enterprise focused on empowering young people from diverse backgrounds to pursue fulfilling careers and make positive contributions to society. Their programs include mentoring, skills development workshops, and networking opportunities aimed at bridging the gap between education and employment for underrepresented groups. Partnering with Babbasa allows us to reach a wider audience of young people and provide them with the guidance and support needed to access apprenticeship opportunities and thrive in their chosen fields.
  • STEM Ambassadors are volunteers from a wide range of STEM backgrounds who engage with young people to inspire and encourage them to pursue careers in STEM subjects. They participate in activities such as school visits, workshops, and career fairs to showcase the opportunities available in STEM fields and provide guidance and inspiration to students. By collaborating with STEM Ambassadors, we can leverage their expertise and passion for STEM to inspire the next generation of apprentices and ensure a diverse and inclusive pipeline of talent into our apprenticeship programs.
  • STEMazing is a community organization dedicated to promoting STEM education and careers, particularly among underrepresented groups such as women and minorities. Their initiatives include outreach events, educational resources, and mentorship programs aimed at breaking down barriers and empowering individuals to pursue STEM pathways. Partnering with STEMazing allows us to access their network and resources to support our efforts in promoting diversity and inclusion within our apprenticeship programs and beyond.

By partnering with these organizations, we can leverage their expertise, resources, and networks to enhance our apprenticeship programs and foster diversity and inclusion in engineering, construction, digital, and other key sectors.

The OfS’s £12 million investment across 51 English universities and colleges underscores the significance of expanding apprenticeship offerings. David Barrett, UWE Bristol’s Director of Apprenticeships, conveyed his excitement about this opportunity, emphasizing our commitment to advancing diversity within Engineering, Construction, and Digital professions. He noted the transformative impact of apprenticeships in addressing skills shortages and promoting equality of opportunity:

“This second wave of Apprenticeship funding from the Office for Students is a fantastic opportunity for UWE Bristol to work with partners across the region to deepen and widen our work on increasing diversity in our Degree Apprenticeships across Engineering, Construction and Digital professions. Apprenticeships are a direct route into highly skilled professions and so there is huge positive impact, both for equality of opportunity, and in meeting the growing demand for skills from employers, in ensuring that we recruit talent that reflects the diversity of the population. We look forward to working with our Partner FE Colleges, partner organisations and employers on this exciting opportunity”.

The OfS funding will be invested in the following UWE Bristol degree apprenticeship programmes:

Additionally, we will collaborate with regional apprenticeship providers such as Weston College, Bridgwater & Taunton College, Gloucestershire College and the City of Bristol College to further this initiative.

To find out more, please contact Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers, Associate Professor for Engineering in Society, at Laura.Foggrogers@uwe.ac.uk

Partnership with Easton based Baggator Nexus leads to new community energy project

Author katcorbett | Posted on

Student-led designs for a new heat network serving Barton Hill’s tower blocks are being taken forward by Bristol Energy Cooperative and Baggator Nexus. Over 30 students on the third year Professionalism for Engineers module developed potential solutions for the Heat Network and pitched their ideas back to local residents. These proposals are being taken forward as a potential Community Energy project, called Barton Heat.

UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering have been long-term collaborators with Baggator Nexus, working on several community co-development projects.

Their outreach team have supported several cohorts of young people over the past five years, with STEM learning and engagement activities. These include the West in Minecraft sessions, and Tinkercad 3D design workshops, which were delivered as part of the MAKERS project.

Digital design workshops with children from St Mark’s Road Mosque
Tinkercad workshop at UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering with children from St Mark’s Road Mosque

This collaboration also continues to offer opportunities for Engineering Students to work on live brief projects, providing real world experience where they can contribute towards sustainability goals. This not only provides students with skills for their employability but contributes towards UWE Bristol’s mission as a Civic University with an aim to reach Net Zero by 2030.

A team of students are also currently helping to fix broken traffic and pollution sensors as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering funded project MAKERS, which will be installed on buildings in the area to help improve the air quality for its residents.

Working with Baggator provides a fantastic opportunity to support young people from under-represented groups in STEM, which fulfils UWE Bristol’s aims to diversify the STEM industry.

Student engineers developing prototype of winning design from young engineer competition

Author joshuawarren | Posted on

The Leaders Award ‘If You Were an Engineer…’ national competition is partnering with UWE Bristol to again support this year’s competition, and bring to life an exciting prototype from one of last year’s winning young engineers.

The competition asks school children to imagine a creative and innovative solution to a problem, and design an inspiring prototype. The competition aims to bring together real-life engineers and schools, to provide STEM outreach, and also inspire the next generation of engineers.

A group of engineering students led by MAKERS Team member Hollie Lewis, are now planning to turn one of last year’s winning designs into reality. The team are working on creating a functioning prototype of an accessible shower design. The design aimed to try to make showering easier for those with disability, and also add some smart features to make finding the right temperature and pressure more convenient.

The group recently visited a retirement village to gain an insight into what is currently in use, and began making plans to innovate and improve. The group also spoke to a resident with mobility issues to learn from his perspective about the challenges that showering can pose.

Not only a valuable and challenging exercise for the team, it is hoped that the design will go on to form part of a student module project assessment. Students will move through the engineering design process to improve and refine the prototype with the support of School of Engineering technicians.

The UWE Bristol School of Engineering has hosted the judging panel and awards ceremony for the ‘If You Were and Engineer…’South West region in previous years, and will be again this year. The winning designs from this year will be on display in the School of Engineering after the event and during the upcoming Family Fun Day taking place on Saturday July 6th. You can find out more information about this by contacting engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk

UWE Bristol students support Easton campaign for better air with repair skills

Author katcorbett | Posted on

As part of the MAKERS project, UWE Bristol students recently had the opportunity to use their repair and making skills to support the Easton based Baggator Youth Group and “Residents Against Dirty Energy” (RADE) Bristol campaign for better air by helping them to fix their traffic and pollution sensors.

The community group uses sensors to measure traffic and air pollution in their area to support their campaign efforts. The collected air pollution data can be then be accessed on the Luftdaten pages, whilst life traffic data is available on the Telraam pages.

As the project has been running for a while, many of the sensors weren’t working as well as they used to, which is why UWE students were invited to support RADE to help fix the faulty sensors, helping the group to improve the quality of the collected data, which plays a key role in their campaign efforts.

It has been a fantastic repair session that was supported by five students and a technician from UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering. This was a great opportunity to learn some practical repair skills of electronics, whilst connecting with and supporting the community of East Bristol in their efforts to improve the air quality for its residents.

The group also especially enjoyed the lunch that was provided by the community and sourced from local businesses.

We would like to thank the community of Easton for being so welcoming to our students, and we look forward to hearing about updates from the project!

How the MAKERS project is supporting students to develop hands-on skills and boost employability

Author katcorbett | Posted on

The UWE MAKERS project has been going from strength to strength since it first launched in September last year to help improve belonging for diverse engineering students at UWE Bristol, through developing connections with local Maker and Repair communities in the region.

The project is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, and aims to support diverse students to continue their careers within engineering. Student feedback has helped the team to develop more employability benefits and direct industry links.

Networking opportunities

During the UWE Repair Café, students now get to work alongside STEM Ambassadors from Industry and Community Volunteers from the Bristol Repair Café Network, many of which are retired engineers themselves. This is a great way to meet and learn from experienced professionals, and connect over hands-on repair, whilst supporting the wider community and the University’s sustainability goals.

Free repair kit to take home

Once students have attended 5 MAKERS events, they can choose between a Hobbycraft Voucher, a Basic Household Repair toolkit, an electronics Device Repair Toolkit, which can be used alongside the freely available IFixIt Repair Guides. This is to enable them to apply their skills and learning at home, acquiring more confidence and practice in doing so.

Digital Skills Badges

MAKERS student volunteers earn digital Skills Badges, which can be used on LinkedIn profile and other social channels to help showcase any relevant skills earned, whilst also enabling badge earners to see job postings requiring those skills.

There are three types of badges: bronze, silver, and gold, depending on the level of involvement in the MAKERS project.

Repair Group and Technician Repair Support

MAKERS students can access technician support and facilities to help grow their repair skills and confidence. This includes the electronic maker space, the 3D printing facilities, and the fitting shop, with all the available tools. There are also a number of sewing machines and an overlocker available to use by those with an interest in textile repair.

Demonstrable Green Skills

The MAKERS project works with the Restart Project to measure their environmental impact, in particular in terms of how much waste has been saved from landfill, and how many CO2 emissions have the saved.

Get involved in MAKERS:

Students who would like to get involved can sign up here.

We particularly encourage women and students from Black, Asian and racially minoritised backgrounds to get in touch!

Opportunity for students to support East Bristol campaign for better air with repair skills

Author engineering | Posted on

The MAKERS project is giving students the opportunity to use their repair and making skills to support the Easton based Baggator Youth Group and “Residents Against Dirty Energy” (RADE) Bristol campaign for better air.

The group uses sensors to measure traffic and air pollution in their area to support their campaign efforts. Air pollution data can be accessed on the Luftdaten pages, whilst life traffic data is available on the Telraam pages.

As the project has been running for a while, many of the sensors don’t work as well as they used to. UWE students are invited to support RADE to help fix the faulty sensors, helping the group to improve the quality of the collected data, which plays a key role in their campaign efforts.

The group will be running two sensor repair sessions on Saturday, February 24th at St Mark’s Baptist Church in Easton. Session 1 will take place from 10.30am – 12.00pm session 2 is from 1-2.30pm. Students can attend either one or both sessions, depending on their availability.

The session will be led by a technician from the School of Engineering who will guide participants through the repairs, so no previous experience is required.

This is a great opportunity to learn some practical repair skills of electronics, whilst connecting with and supporting the community of East Bristol in their efforts to improve the air quality for its residents. There will be food provided on the day, and travel costs can be reimbursed.

Students can sign up via the Sign-up form, or email kat.corbett@uwe.ac.uk with any questions.

Students and community repairers explore 3D printing of spare parts

Author katcorbett | Posted on

Students and community repair volunteers recently had the opportunity to explore a novel way to create spare plastic parts for repair: 3D design and 3D printing.

This idea first occurred when coming across a number of snapped plastic parts as part of UWE Bristol’s Repair Café. The traditional way of using glue and epoxy resins was not always suitable or strong enough, and after a first successful trial of fixing a Soda Stream by replacing a broken seal  with a new 3D printed version, the team behind the MAKERS project decided to explore 3D printing for repair more.

MAKERS (Making and Knowledge Exchange for Repair and Sustainability) aims to improve belonging for diverse engineering students at UWE Bristol, through developing connections with local Maker and Repair communities in the West of England.

Students and MAKERS community partners were invited to take part in a 3D design workshop led by Dr Joe Butchers, lecturer in Engineering Principles, to explore how the freely available and easy to use platform Tinkercad could be used, even by those with no relevant previous experience to create spare parts.

After practicing on some initial simple shapes and design, the group got to work on some broken sample parts, which had been sent in by members of the public to create a new part. As part of this, they successfully created a new plastic bracket for a 40-year-old baby cot.

3D printed replacement cot catch and the original, broken version

The session was a great way to explore how 3D printing could be made more accessible to the wider repair community, and the team are now looking to run another one soon, giving the amount of interest from the repair community and students to learn more, and to work through some of the other broken items that were offered by members of the public to be fixed.

The team are exploring routes to run a workshop again and seeking funding for future training.

Join the 2024 Women Like Me Mentoring Programme!

Author katcorbett | Posted on

We’re thrilled to announce that recruitment is now open for the 2024 round of the Women Like Me Mentoring Programme in the West of England area. As well as our cohort open to all women engineers or property professionals, we now have funding from the Office for Students for a specific cohort focussed on degree apprentices!

Women Like Me is a dynamic peer mentoring and outreach project aimed at boosting female representation in engineering and construction careers at all levels. Our unique program pairs senior women engineers/property professionals with their junior counterparts, fostering mentoring relationships supported through various events. Plus, we provide training and opportunities for junior women to engage in STEM education outreach within local schools. Since 2018, the program has empowered over 300 women, and we’re excited to continue making a positive impact.

Who can take part? Early career female engineers/property professionals (with less than five years of experience) in the Bristol and Bath area are invited as mentees. Senior women engineers, with at least five years of experience, are invited to participate as mentors.

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.

For more details, and to enrol onto the programme:

  • Mentors (more than 5 years’ experience) apply here
  • Mentees (less than 5 years’ experience) apply here

Check out our impact video: Women Like Me (vimeo.com)

Thank you for your ongoing support! Let’s make the 2024 Women Like Me Mentoring Programme another resounding success.

Female engineering students and mentors can register now for Women Like Me career coaching events

Author engineering | Posted on

UWE’s School of Engineering is celebrating 5 years of running the Women Like Me scheme in the West of England. Since 2018, we have supported over 250 women from tens of local businesses to develop their careers in engineering. The programme pairs mid-career women engineers with junior women engineers in the Bristol and Bath area to provide career and public engagement mentoring. The junior women then undertake outreach activities in local schools and events. The scheme is still much needed, as only 16% of engineers and 18% of chartered surveyors in the UK are women.

This year the scheme has expanded to include women in the property business, where women surveying students are paired with women surveying professionals. The scheme has been supported this year by construction, property and management consultancy RLB. Previous support from the DETI project has enabled us to partner with STEMazing to provide mentoring support and outreach training.

Women Like Me has the below exciting events coming up, which are particularly aimed at female engineering students and mentors. These events are supported by construction, property and management consultancy RLB.

Beyond technical brilliance: Using influencing skills to enable career success
Caroline Gourlay, Business psychologist and leadership coach
Online, Tuesday 28 November, 16.15 – 17.15

Celebration of 5 years of Women Like Me
Panel talk: Career journey with Q&A and networking time

This is a hybrid event, held in the School of Engineering with the panel discussion being available online. The session is open to everyone who has taken part in Women Like Me over the past five years. People are to register via this link. The organisers will get in touch with everyone who registers to either send them a MS Teams link, or directions to the event and to arrange parking in the visitors car park.
Monday 4 December 16.15 – 17.15

Some of the events are run by the surveying charity, Lionheart and their expert trainers. Whilst the Lionheart sessions are primarily open to surveyors and surveying students, there will be six additional spaces for non-surveying disciplines. These additional places will be allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis.

To ensure yourself a space, please do sign up to events as soon as possible. You can register here, and links will be circulated to those who have registered. You can also contact the organiser Samantha Organ (samantha2.organ@uwe.ac.uk) for any questions.

New Repair Café at School of Engineering brings together students and wider community

Author engineering | Posted on

UWE Bristol’s Repair Café has gotten off to a great start on its very first session on October 11th 2023!

We had a fantastic team of 14 helpers, which included students, community volunteers, technicians, and other UWE staff, helping with repair and general organising.

There was a lot of demand for repair amongst the UWE community: people brought in old toys, soda streams, lawn mowers, lamps, trousers, skirts, dresses, and much more!

In total, our repairers managed to work on 16 items, of which 10 were fixed, 3 are still outstanding (waiting for spare parts, or ran out of time to finish), and 3 could not be repaired.

So far, the repairers helped save 11kg of waste from going to landfill, and 67kg of CO2 emissions, which is the equivalent of manufacturing 1 sofa, or watching TV for 116 days!

All repair data is collected in support of the work of the Restart project. Our latest repair information can be accessed on their webpages. We are able to run the Repair Café through the MAKERS project, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Radio mentions

We are delighted to have had two mentions on BBC Radio Bristol to mark the launch of the Repair Café. First, project lead Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers was interviewed by Paris Troy as part of the station’s morning show to talk about the Repair Café and the wider repair movement.

Listen here

We also had BBC Radio Bristol’s Steve Yabsley attend the Repair Café in person, where he interviewed many of the people who helped or had their items fixed.

catch up here

Upcoming Repair Cafes and how to get involved

The next Repair Café will take place on November 8th 2023 at the School of Engineering from 12.15 – 1.45pm.

The November Repair Café will also receive additional support from UWE Bristol’s Fashion Technical team who will be running a MEND session with information below.

You can just drop in on the day, or email kat.corbett@uwe.ac.uk if you have any questions.

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