Tag: equal opportunities

23rd June 2022 marks International Women in Engineering Day, giving women engineers around the world a profile in an under-represented profession. As of June 2021, figures show that 16.5% of engineers are women. It’s an important day to recognise those paving the way and encourage young women to take up engineering careers.

Why do we need more women in engineering?

There are many answers to this question, but ultimately studies have shown that diverse teams tend to perform better. With different approaches to tasks, various skillsets and ways of thinking, diverse teams can strike a great balance. Men and women often have different strengths, which can create a powerful result when combined.

With quickly developing technology and the 21st century advancing quicker than ever before, we need engineers with a wide range of skills and abilities. There are countless options, fields, and industries available to an engineer. From the built environment which encompasses roads, waterworks, railways and much more, to tackling climate change.

What can be done?

There are a number of organisations promoting the education and development of women or young girls to fulfil their potential and pursue engineering careers.

It’s important to shake the bias that girls can’t be or are not good in science and mathematics. From a young age, we can encourage girls to develop these skills. Such as learning code, carrying out science experiments (safely!) and taking these subjects through to further education.

STEM Women run graduate careers events and promote jobs aimed at university students and recent graduates who identify as women or non-binary, and study a STEM-related subject; science, technology, engineering, or mathematics.

At the start of the year, they published a Whitepaper exploring students’ and graduates’ attitudes towards gender issues prevalent within STEM.

As a society, we should be shining the light on the contributions of women in engineering and encourage female innovators. Films such as Hidden Figures, Engima, Gravity and even Big Hero 6 are a great representation of women in STEM. We should also improve the images used when talking about science and engineering. A quick search online will often show images of men on a construction site and very few women. Imagine getting to a point where you don’t have to specifically search for “women engineer”.

The Women’s Engineering Society is a charitable company founded to support women in engineering. They were the ones who founded International Women in Engineering Day. Their vision is to see an engineering industry that employs the diversity of the society it serves, solving the biggest societal issues of our time. It is their mission to support women in engineering careers to fulfil their potential and support the industry to be inclusive.

We’re Hiring

At Advance TRS, we believe everyone deserves the same opportunities, regardless of age, race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. The diversity of our workforce is an essential part of our success. As such, we are committed to supporting contractors and staff to work in an environment that is free from discrimination and promotes equal opportunities for all.

We are currently recruiting for a number of positions across our Guildford and Port Solent offices. Check out our latest opportunities.

During the week of International Women’s Day, some of our team members attended a webinar hosted by APSCo and Women in Recruitment, who had invited inspirational guest speaker Yetunde Hofmann to talk about the importance of recognising who you are and how to really value what you bring to an organisation.

Yetunde, who has a professional background in HR, is a thought leader on culture and behaviour. She is the author of the book Beyond Engagement and founder of a pioneering new leadership development programme for black women called Solaris.

While this thought-provoking webinar was geared towards women, it provided us with great food for thought that we believe everyone can benefit from and we wanted to share this with you in this blog.

Take time for yourself

Do you take any time out of your busy schedule to do something for yourself? And by that we don’t mean exercising, but taking some time for selfcare. That could be reading a book, having a relaxing bath or listening to a podcast. 

This is really important as it will help you to recharge your batteries and feel more energised again. After all you can’t drink from an empty cup!

Value yourself

Who hasn’t been in a situation when you doubted yourself and feel that you need others’ approval or confirmation. Start acknowledging and believing in yourself. Think about what your strengths truly are and remember that everyone is unique and has their own skills and talents. 

When you are content with who you are you will notice the way you work with and support others shift and see extraordinary results. 

To help you become more content within yourself, try to give the following questions some thought: 

  • What gets you motivated?
  • When are you at your best?
  • When are you at your worst?

These are just some of the questions that will help you find out more about yourself. 

Find your joy

This can be and mean so many different things. For some it might mean finding a hobby they love, others find joy in simply being outside in nature and practicing mindfulness. 

Ultimately, finding your joy will help you build your resilience from within. Take some time to dig deep and find out what really makes you feel that joy.

These are only some of the core takeaways from Yetunde’s webinar. If you would like to find out more about Yetunde and read some more of her thought-provoking blogs on a variety of topics you can find her website here.

At Advance TRS, we believe everyone deserves the same opportunities, regardless of age, race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. The diversity of our workforce is an essential part of our success. As such, we are committed to supporting contractors and staff to work in an environment that is free from discrimination and promotes equal opportunities for all.

If you would like to find out more about us and view current opportunities, please view our careers page. Or contact Advance TRS CEO Paul Metcalfe on 07793 554 413 or email pme@advance-trs.com for a discrete conversation.