‘New Recruit’ Celebrates Role of Women in Engineering
HPA has welcomed its newest member of the team – a doll named Lottie. While she may not be able to walk or talk, Lottie is a prolific tweeter and has a huge media following for her role in shining a light on the roles women play in engineering professions.
Lottie joins the team as part of The Women’s Engineering Society (WES) #LottieTour that aims to raise awareness about opportunities for women. The tour is based on Lottie dolls being taken to work and pictured in engineering roles, demonstrating the amazing and varied careers available in engineering for women. The photos are then shared during Tomorrow’s Engineers week.
With women making up three quarters of the team, HPA was chosen among UK businesses to host Lottie during the campaign. The team (pictured) includes architect and director Zoe Hooton, architects Hayley Dufton and Helen Madin, as well as technologist Charlotte Fenn.
Lottie joined them for a week’s ‘work experience’, which included site meetings with builders, climbing several church rooves, and enjoying an afternoon of design reviews.
Zoe, a director at HPA commented: “The Lottie Tour is a bit of fun with a serious message. Starting a career in construction can be quite daunting for many women as men often get a head start having hands-on experience with tools and equipment from a young age. We encourage young female students to gain practical experience right from the start to understand both the academic and practical side of working in architecture, engineering and construction.”
HPA takes pride in helping young women with an interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects and engineering. It participates in a number of mentoring schemes throughout the North West and operates an advanced work experience scheme.
Zoe added: “It’s always a pleasure to see many female students that join us for work experience, go on to forge careers in STEM subjects. Our most recent students have included not just architects, but also a coder and a joiner.
It’s important to show girls the range of engineering roles that are available to them and this clever campaign using Lottie dolls really supports this message.”
Tomorrow’s Engineers week runs from November 5-9, 2018 and aims to change perceptions of engineering among young people, their parents and teachers and to inspire future engineers.
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