Project title: Together Empowered: Voicing minority groups in tackling climate change
Funding awarded: £66,250
Summary:
This project models a way of addressing the lack of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the engineering profession and the benefits greater inclusion can bring to the key issues of our time. It does so by facilitating the engagement of minoritised engineering students with industry partners to develop innovative solutions to the global issue of climate. As students collaborate with professionals to develop innovative solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change they will develop skills, confidence and a new affinity with their chosen field. Industry partners will experience the benefit of engaging with diverse perspectives and be supported to develop the skills required lead inclusive teams and cultures.
What need does the project address?
University of East London (UEL) has had significant success in attracting students from diverse backgrounds to its school, but awarding, progression and gender diversity gaps persist. This intervention will look at the effects that collaborating closely with industry partners on meaningful project work will have in growing students’ career aspirations, developing a sense of value and belonging to the field of study and encouraging students to advance their employability skills and academic performance. The project also aims to create a change of perspective for industry stakeholders, to develop an appreciation of the merits of a diverse and inclusive working environment and the power of accessing a broad range of perspectives to gain the deepest insights into complex challenges.
What does the project consist of?
The core activity is a nine-month collaboration with industry in partnership with London Climate Change Partnership. Students will help develop strategies to tackle climate change issues in a professional environment with industry partners from their engineering field of interest. They will be supported by EDI champions to ensure inclusive principles are followed throughout and that students receive the support they need. Partners will also receive extensive training in the principles of inclusive leadership to facilitate a positive experience for their student collaborators.
What are the expect outcomes?
The long-term goals of the project are to empower minoritised groups in Engineering by creating an equally safe work and education environment, to promote the value of diversification, inclusion and equality in the Engineering sector and to minimise the awarding and succession gap in HEIs through maximising EDI in both industry and academia.
There are various intermediate outcomes which will drive these goals. The project expects to produce a growing number of beneficiaries who join and contribute to the profession, increase motivation amongst students to get professionally engaged in the profession and achieve improved academic performance. The university expects to incorporate the EDI learnings from the project into institutional strategies, it expects to become more informed on industry skill requirements, and to drive increased awareness and responsiveness in the profession to the needs of minority groups, and their value to engineering.