As part of our celebrations of International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) last week, a few of our female engineers gave a virtual presentation to students at two schools about what it means to be an engineer.

After giving an overview on our practice, projects and the everyday life of an engineer at Max Fordham, Katie Clemence-Jackson, Ingrid Berkeley, Chiara DiSantis and Suzanne Goulder explained what different routes are there to become an engineer, and gave a glimpse into some of the more unusual projects that make life as an engineer especially exciting:

"We also work on some slightly quirkier projects - because of our expertise and by understanding how things like air, heat and light move through buildings, it means we’re well qualified to understand some more unusual projects like 4th Plinth on Trafalgar Square in London - a giant ship in a glass bottle. We were able to design systems to make sure this ship wouldn’t have condensation in the bottle, and that it was beautifully lit at night time." - Katie Clemence-Jackson

Our presenters enjoyed speaking to the students and we're glad to have, once again, been able to help young people interested in STEM subjects see what exciting opportunities a career in engineering can bring. We endeavour to continue using INWED as a chance to show women and girls that there is a place for them, and people of all backgrounds and genders, in the engineering industry - let's get them excited and involved!

"The girls were very engaged and found both the speakers and their descriptions of projects really interesting, prompting lots of questions. Please extend our thanks to the speakers - they did a great job. Thank you for thinking of us - we really appreciate these opportunities to promote Engineering to our students." - attending teacher

"The four speakers were great! The students were really engaged with them as they were all enthusiastic and relatable. It was really positive to see diversity represented too. It was fantastic for the students to see a number of different school subjects being brought together in one career. The discussion about problem solving and creativity combined in the roles was really appealing to some of the students." - attending teacher