On 16th November 2015, we organised our first Inter-institute event “Inclusive Engineering: The Way Ahead” which I am pleased to say was a great success! The event was kindly hosted by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) at their beautiful headquarters at One Great George Street. ICE also arranged for the discussion to be recorded for us too therefore allowing us to reach a wider audience (see link below). I would like to thank our co-sponsors ICE, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). Our panel for the evening included:
- Dr Mark McBride-Wright, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group IChemE, Chair of InterEngineering
- Peter Gracey, Royal Navy, Secretary of InterEngineering
- David Johnson, Chief Executive, Social Mobility Foundation
- Melanie Jackson, Business Analyst & Co-Lead LGBT Network, National Grid
- Anne Jenkins, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, BAE Systems
The discussion was separated in to three blocks comprising:
- Diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the workplace (05:00 minutes);
- Impact of D&I on social mobility and the importance of it to the upcoming generation (29:00 minutes); and
- What are the roles of individuals, companies and institutes? (57:00 minutes).
The full recording can be watched here:
A key take-home message was to get involved, speak up, ask questions and challenge. Some of the biggest barriers sometimes can be a passive workforce. To make things happen, organisations need passionate people to join together and get involved. Ask questions of your company and realise you can be a role model and an agent for change in your organisation. Be positive and remain positive.
I would like to thank the speakers for their time, to our sponsors for allowing the event to happen, and also to the IChemE Diversity and Inclusion Working Group who helped generate the questions for the evening.
Author: Dr Mark McBride-Wright, Chair of InterEngineering