Greenwich Council organised the Engineering for Girls event at Eltham Hill Technology College to encourage girls to take up a new engineering diploma being offered by the Council. We were asked to give a short interactive presentation to multiple groups of Year 9 students on what civil engineering is all about and what we are involved with on a day to day basis.
Both Sylvia and I focused on our supervisory roles on the Olympic Park site but also our contractor’s wider views on planning and designing, which we have demonstrated across the project.
I found the experience of the day to be both challenging and rewarding: while some girls seemed to already have a basic understanding of civil engineering, others were both excited and amazed at the scale of the Olympic Park project and the different stages of construction that we have been involved with, such as getting the site ready for construction by clearing and cleaning the Olympic Park, putting down the foundations and starting to build the structures.
I believe that the day was a valuable experience for us and the girls that we were presenting to, as well as those who attended careers events. If even just one or two girls have been inspired to become engineers from this event then it’s been a great success!
