International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) is an international campaign to raise the profile of women in engineering and give focus to the career opportunities available in the industry.

INWED takes place annually on 23rd June, the anniversary of the founding of the Women's Engineering Society, and this year's theme is "Raising the Bar".

Max Fordham, as a practice, are getting involved in as many ways as we can to celebrate all the fantastic women - Employees and Partners, Engineers and Business Support - that make up a significant and important part of our practice (you can see pictures of some of them below!).

Throughout the year we encourage our people to get involved in STEM outreach work, especially with under-represented groups. In honour of INWED, here are some recent examples of what we've been doing to help improve diversity in our industry...

School Workshop:

This morning (Friday 22nd June) we hosted a school workshop for 25 Year-8 girls in our London office.

During the session we gave the students an introduction to what Max Fordham do - including our work sectors and the things we do day-to-day - and talked about all the possible routes into engineering careers. We also ran a Speed Networking session to give the girls a chance to ask our Max Fordham representatives about their own careers.

A key part of the workshop was the Engineering Challenge. We split the students into groups with a Max Fordham volunteer assisting each group. The students were asked to design a school in various extreme climate locations, taking into consideration how buildings can be designed to suit their environment and how light, air and heat can be brought into a building. This required them to draw and annotate their school on a large sheet of paper. Each group then gave a 2 minute presentation on their design. To finish this activity, the Max Fordham volunteers gave the students an example of a real building in each location and described how it was adapted to its surroundings. 

On Full Power
Our very own Sara Kheradmand was one of eight Edinburgh University alumnae who took part in a Women in Engineering Careers Networking event as part of the School of Engineering's 150th anniversary celebrations. Sara was a speaker at the event, and was then invited back to meet Her Royal Highness Princess Anne (Chancellor of Edinburgh University) who unveiled a plaque to mark 150 years of the School of Engineering.

Following this, the June edition of Edinburgh University's EDIT magazine focused on Women in Engineering, and Sara was interviewed and featured on the cover.

As part of the interview, Sara shared her views on how engineering can achieve positive changes in our world: “I think engineers are good organisers. They see the world as a series of steps, action / reaction, problem / solution, and can therefore definitely achieve positive changes in the world if they put their minds to it.”

It's a great article and a fantastic opportunity to showcase women in engineering. You can read the full article here.

Big Bang Scotland:

Our Ingrid Berkeley recently judged and presented at Big Bang Scotland 2018.

The event was attended by over 950 school pupils and teachers from 41 schools across Scotland, who came from as far afield as Inverness, Kinlochleven, Stonehaven and the Borders. Feedback on the event was exceptional, including these quotes from students who attended, "It made me interested in other careers and expanded my knowledge of careers" and "I am now considering taking biology, because I learnt about many interesting jobs".

Ingrid said about the event "I was flattered to be asked to give the presentation. On a personal level, I took part in this competition when I was at school and I won one of the prizes and a bursary - this event is what sent me on the path that I'm on now! It was great to give back and hopefully the event will have encouraged some other students to do STEM subjects at school or university and to pursue a career in engineering."