With the WISE campaign in its 30th year, the WYWB mission is to help young women be successful as they enter the STEM workforce and navigate through their early careers. The board members, who are all WISE members, were selected through certain criteria: the women must be born after the WISE campaign was established, hold technical qualifications and work in a technical position. As successful young role models in their own companies, the WYWB is perfectly poised to bring their expertise to an ever changing workplace. And with technology creating new ways to network and grow professionally in comparison to 30 years ago, WYWB members will be a great resource for the WISE campaign to reach their target of one million more women in STEM.
The WYWB met for the first time last week and experienced an intense day of media training in preparation for their new role as representatives of the WISE campaign. There are nine companies represented and the 10th position is held by Harriet Vickers, the first Range Rover Evoque WISE Scholarship (RREWS) recipient from 2013. Harriet is currently in her second year at Durham University studying engineering after completing a summer placement at Jaguar Land Rover working on the future Evoque car design. “It’s great to see the different career options, to see what I can do in the next part in my life,” says Harriet. “Hearing about how women work on submarines or spacecraft has been a highlight.”
“Having the chance to meet with other young women outside of my industry and share ideas about how to encourage women to join us and be successful in STEM careers is an incredible opportunity,” says Siân Cleaver, Mission Systems Engineer at Astrium.
“After 30 years, it was essential for WISE to bring in new blood to tackle the country’s growing need for more people to study and work in the STEM sector,” says Helen Wollaston, Director of WISE. “We need to have massive ambition to reach the next one million women in STEM and the young women’s board is a reflection of that ambition. We hope to aspire and capture the imagination of girls with these outstanding role models.”
The Board meets again on 13 November at the annual WISE Awards in London for their initial meeting and to comment on the discussions throughout the daytime programme. More info here.
Members of the board will be available for interviews or comment on the 13th during the daytime programme.
The inaugural WISE Young Women’s Board are:
- Keeley Burke, Systems Engineer, Halliburton
- Siân Cleaver, Missions Systems Engineer, Astrium (Airbus Defence & Space)
- Anna Cheng, UK Enterprise and Technical PR Manager, Intel Corporation
- Lucy Collins, Naval Architect, Ministry of Defence, on secondment to University College London
- Vedika Dalmia, Software Developer, Bloomberg
- Hannah Goodall , Senior Engineer, Network Rail
- Emilie Ravel, Engineering Programme Manager, Rolls Royce
- Sasha Roberts, Signatures Engineer, Thales
- Harriet Vickers, RREWS winner 2013, Durham University student
- Sally Wood, Plant Engineering Manager, Royal Mail
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WISE provides its members a variety of STEM related resources and workshops and membership is free for any student; membership fees for companies and individuals are available here. For more information on WISE, go to www.wisecampaign.org.uk or contact Sarah Shaw at: sarah.shaw@wisecampaign.org.