INWED – sharing experiences and career development
International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), will celebrate its 11th year in 2024 and this year’s theme is #Enhancedbyengineering. INWED plays a vital role in encouraging more young women and girls to take up engineering careers by giving women engineers around the world a profile when they are still hugely under-represented, with 2021 figures indicating that in the UK only 16.5% of engineers are women*.
At Bosch UK, the Women@Bosch team participated in INWED again, this year in person for the first time in 5 years. Hosted at the new i-House office in Coventry, Kerstin Harrison Director of Sales and controlling for BBM opened the event - “We are lucky enough to host an expert panel with representatives from our customers, industry and academia here to discuss the opportunities in our industry, and the innovation and cultural changes necessary to make this happen”. Arun Srinivasan, Executive Vice President of Mobility Solutions UK followed with a story of his own that showcased how “different perspectives, leverage new perspectives” and the importance of diversity to any business but especially in our goal of inspiring new talent to join the engineering industry.
The panel focused on their individual career paths and the changes within the mobility industry, in particular as new industries emerge such as electrification. Michelle O’Connor, Chief Technical Specialist, Vehicle Dynamics, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), who was one of the first women in vehicle dynamics in Chrysler, before her current role, talked about the importance of having allies in the business, knowing your value and supporting others to have a voice. “You have to role model the leadership you want” she explained during the discussion.
Dr. Ben Silverstone, Associate Professor and Director of the WMG Skills Centre at the University of Warwick talked about the challenge of getting people to stay in the workforce longer term, and around the nuances that the British work culture presents such as presenteeism which can be a barrier to a diverse workforce. Hayley Pells, Policy & Public Affairs Lead at the Institute of Motor Industry shared the #moretomotor campaign “we want to highlight the opportunities available in the sector in electrification and autonomous technologies. Yet there are many misconceptions about the sector which have contributed to a shortfall in job opportunities and record high vacancies, with 26,000 roles unfilled. This campaign is highlighting the importance of seeing yourself in jobs available, for future entrants to the industry.” She also highlighted the need for a focus on digital literacy as a barrier to entry.
Within JLR, a cultural transformation is taking place and these challenges are considered to be a focus area to ensuring the business’ longevity. Julie Stears, Chief Engineer, Engineering Quality, Jaguar Land Rover rounded off the discussion with a key learning “Look for opportunities that interest you and above all, find a good boss to support that journey!”
With a focus on career development, a later panel discussion included four female engineers from Bosch UK, including a Sugandha Kumari (coding expert), Golnaz Nouroisi (mechanical engineer), Tahsina Khan (sustainability expert) and Ray McClay (1st Corgi registered woman in the UK). Their perspectives from a variety of backgrounds lead to an interesting discussion about pushing through glass ceilings and not underestimating yourself! The discussion rounded off with three important words to sum up their successes – mentoring, leadership and networking and the importance of each to achieving your potential.
This event was attended by 30 associates working across the engineering disciplines as well as allies across all our divisions. Stephanie Alexander, a member of the Women@Bosch team who organised the event said “On behalf of the W@B Denham team, I would like to thank everyone who joined the INWED event on Wednesday, it was great to get people together in person again after 5 years. We hope that we provided some inspiration and fuelled further discussions from the panellist topics covered during the session and look forward to developing the work we are doing in the W@Bosch team - to put on future events, and help the business continue with supporting our female associates in their career development.”
