Providing Resources on Engineering to Local Schools

Making the next generation aware of the different roles within our industry is something Sisk Lagan Joint Venture take very seriously and it became apparent on several visits to local schools that the lack of knowledge as to where the teachers could obtain career information materials was a real problem for them.

We ordered boxes of the different career packs and booklets from Tomorrow’s Engineers, downloaded information from various websites from our industry and put together some packs to drop off to local schools to help them educate the children about our industry. A simple task that meant so much and was most appreciated by the schools. They now know the websites they can use to order more information when they need it and are more confident in talking to the children about construction and engineering careers.

It is all well and good talking to the children in assembly or giving presentations to school groups about why we love to work in this industry but if they don’t have the information to read to back up what was said, they soon forget about your talk or presentation. Taking female engineers and female site managers worked well for us at several schools and Universities to promote that this industry is not just for men and gave the girls something to think about when they are choosing their future career path or, in the case of Universities, to reassure the girls that they are on the right course and they can do it.

Using the ICE Bridges for Schools kit was a winning activity which had all of the children talking about how they had built a bridge and walked across it. We need more of these tools to take to schools to encourage the next generation of engineers.