Sylvia Leatham
Team Leader, Engineers Ireland STEPS programme
Engineers Ireland’s STEPS programme provides young girls with an exciting insight into careers in engineering. Furthermore, the STEP’s programmes encourages them.
Sylvia Leatham, Team Leader for the Engineers Ireland STEPS outreach programme, says that the initiative tries to provide role models. These role models help to further women in engineering and STEM careers by making them visible to young people.
“We run an engineering outreach programme with volunteer engineers around the country. These engineers give up their time to meet students in person, in the classroom or at career events. 30 per cent of our volunteers are women. This is a higher percentage than the number of women working in engineering! This shows that women want to share their love of engineering with young girls. By sharing this passion, it gives them an idea of the career they could have.”
Leatham says that a ‘person to person interaction’ is influential for young people. “Female engineers talking about their education, career and personality sends a powerful message to young girls. Meeting women in engineering with successful and rewarding careers lets girls see that they could have that too.”
Engineering-focused outreach programme
The STEPS programme is the only national, engineering-focused, outreach programme in Ireland. More and more young people are joining in on the events. In fact, some 73,000 young people are engaging with engineers through STEPS in 2016. The engineering outreach programme aims to generate more interest in STEM (science technology engineering and maths). Similarly, to create more public awareness for young girls in particular.
“We get great feedback from our participants,” says Leatham. “The students have been incredibly positive about meeting the engineers and hearing their individual stories. The feedback we get is that the students – and teachers – learn things about engineering they didn’t know before. This makes them more open to the possibility of an engineering career.”
STEPS’ Engineering Your Future programme, which introduces Transition Year students to hands-on engineering, allows students to experience the many different types of engineering. This aims to dispel the image of engineers as men in hardhats.
STEPS’ Engineering Your Future programme, which introduces Transition Year students to hands-on engineering, allows students to experience the many different types of engineering so they don’t just have an image of engineers as men in hardhats.
“The students really involved in engineering. In fact, the programme includes make-and-do activities, company visits, meeting diverse engineers and having fun. Generally, this hands-on interaction means young people get to see the world they could step into. Consequently, we’re delighted that 80 per cent of those taking part said the programme helped them make college choices. Furthermore, 97 per cent said they would recommend it to their friends.”
Saving the world with engineering outreach
Leatham says the world desperately needs more engineers. Girls need to know that they can help to solve the global issues of today and tomorrow. “Engineering is a really exciting and creative profession to get involved in. You have so many opportunities to go down different career paths.
“Being able to make a difference in the world is a hugely appealing message for girls. It is engineers who will figure out how we address huge global problems. These include questions of clean energy, and engineering offers a chance to create a positive change in society. In fact, many young girls want to make a positive change in the world. We also try to let them see that engineering can be the way to do that.”
Making smart moves
STEPS works in strategic partnership with Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) on Smart Futures, a collaborative government-industry-education programme promoting STEM careers to students in Ireland. The programme is funded by SFI, along with the Department of Education and a number of engineering companies.
“The key to any successful STEM engagement programme is working with partners,” says Leatham. “You have a better chance of making an impact.
Finally, she concludes, “we honestly couldn’t run the programme without our volunteer engineers and supporting organisations. We arrange for young people to have hands-on experiences of the exciting world of engineering and get an insight into possible careers – we couldn’t do any of that without the support of the engineering industry and our partner organisations.”