{"id":18,"date":"2018-06-20T15:18:10","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T14:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/?p=18"},"modified":"2018-10-09T17:13:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T16:13:30","slug":"women-like-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/women-like-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Like Me – a new engineering outreach project at UWE Bristol"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Only 11% of engineers in the UK are women. Is this enough?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

No, it’s really not \u2013 we have an engineering skills shortage<\/a> as it is, and the low proportion of women in the workforce means that a whole pool of talent is going untapped<\/a>. Girls need to be able to see engineering as for them, connect with it as career and have access to positive female role models. And in turn, women need to feel supported to make a difference in the workplace once they get there, so that they not only go into, but stay in engineering roles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So what can we do about that, and how can we bring people together? Here at UWE Bristol, we\u2019re launching \u2018Women Like Me\u2019; a project which aims to open doors to girls and build resilience for women in engineering. Laura Fogg Rogers<\/a> and Dr Laura Hobbs<\/a> will be running the project over the next year; we both have lots of experience of delivering outreach and engagement projects and are passionate about making Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths accessible to everyone, at all stages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Supporting women and girls in engineering<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Women Like Me is a peer mentoring and outreach project aimed at boosting female representation in engineering. So what does that actually mean?<\/p>\n

The project will pair senior women engineers with junior women engineers to give them mentoring support as they start out in their engineering careers. In turn, junior women will undertake engineering education outreach in schools and at public events in the Bristol and Bath area. Engineering is a creative, socially conscious, and collaborative discipline, and this project aims to support girls and women to make a difference in society.<\/p>\n

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Who can take part?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mid-career and early career female engineers working in the Bristol and Bath area can get involved in the project. Senior <\/strong>women engineers are those who are more than five years <\/strong>post-graduation from their first degree. Junior<\/strong> women engineers are those with less than five years<\/strong> of experience since entering the engineering profession, and can include apprentices, trainees, postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers.<\/p>\n

Undergraduates aren\u2019t eligible to take part; whilst they are fantastic role models, UWE already provides public engagement training for undergraduate engineering students through the Engineering and Society<\/a>\u00a0module.<\/p>\n

What will it involve?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We will offer networking opportunities <\/strong>to all participants at the start (October 2018) and end (April 2019) of the project. Senior <\/strong>engineers will receive training in mentoring<\/strong> and meet with their junior engineer mentee<\/strong> at least twice during the project.<\/p>\n

Junior<\/strong> engineers will receive mentoring support<\/strong> from senior engineers and training in public engagement<\/strong>. They will then undertake at least three engineering outreach activities<\/strong> in local schools and at local public events. Activities and coordination of events is provided and supported by UWE; participation is voluntary and we\u2019ll cover travel expenses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How can I find out more or sign up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more information or to get involved, please email engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk<\/a>. You can also follow the project on Twitter<\/a> for updates.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Women Like Me is based in the Science Communication Unit<\/a> at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE), supported by the WISE Bristol Hub<\/a> and STEM Ambassador Hub West England<\/a> and funded by a Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious<\/a> grant. The project is organised by Dr Laura Hobbs<\/a> and was initiated by Laura Fogg-Rogers<\/a>. By matching senior and junior female engineers and supporting junior engineers to connect with the children and young people as the engineers of tomorrow, the project will lead to impact both in the workplace today, and for the future of the engineering profession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only 11% of engineers in the UK are women. Is this enough? No, it’s really not \u2013 we have an engineering skills shortage as it is, and the low proportion of women in the workforce means that a whole pool of talent is going untapped. Girls need to be able to see engineering as for … Continue reading “Women Like Me – a new engineering outreach project at UWE Bristol”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":44,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,24,18,22,14],"tags":[26,12,28,29,13,25,27],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-curiosity-connections","category-outreach","category-schools","category-women-like-me","category-year-of-engineering","tag-curiosity-connections","tag-laura-fogg-rogers","tag-laura-hobbs","tag-outreach","tag-science-communication-unit","tag-women-like-me","tag-year-of-engineering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}