STEM: Creating a sector that’s more inclusive for everyone
Sarah Bembridge, Quality Engineer, gives an overview of our Inclusion and Diversity programme here at BGL Tech…
Feeling inspired by the Women in Silicon Roundabout event last year, and challenged by the fact women make up only 17% of the UK technology sector[1], I felt motivated to play my part in making a difference. In response to the clear gender gap in the market, a few colleagues and I decided to set up an Inclusion and Diversity programme, which would initially support women in developing careers in technology.
After undertaking some further research, which suggested room for growth in the number of people taking IT-related degrees, we decided to expand our programme to also support young people in education.
As it stands, our Inclusion and Diversity programme is broken up into three strands, which aims to support STEM engagement from an early age, all the way through to employment. In this blog post, I’ll take a deep-dive into each group and provide an overview on what we’re doing to support them, given each one will have different needs and require different types of support.
Early years
This area supports primary schools and teachers in their adoption of STEM activities. We recognise that, in some instances, teachers can be the ‘jack of all trades’. They have a remarkable skill of changing their ‘teaching hat’ hour-by-hour — whether it be from Maths to English, to Art, for example.
We work with and support teachers to engage children with STEM from an early age, whilst also instilling the message early on that technology is open to everyone. We work with them to create engaging STEM activities across the academic year, whether it’s through providing relevant materials or delivering workshops. We also work with teachers to help get some of their ideas into the classroom.
Decision years
Continuing to support young people throughout their school years, we work with teachers to develop STEM materials and activities to support Key Stage 3 learning, ahead of GCSE choices.
We’ve made some strong movements in this area recently in our local community: creating interactive assets to engage pupils in STEM, running hackathons, hosting events and activities in the work environment, and organising after school clubs with featured speakers, demos and access to new technology.
Employment
The final touchpoint is ensuring that we’re making a career in technology more accessible for everyone in the workplace. We’ve been doing a lot of work on creating a more flexible workplace at BGL — our Chief People Officer, Rachael Gillett talks about the importance of doing so in her recent post on our website, and my colleague Amanda has talked about how she’s personally benefited from flexible working hours, allowing her to spend more time with her son, in her blog. We’re also working to ensure that we’re smarter with the ways in which we’re communicating with women who want to start a career in tech — whether this be through open days and taster sessions, trying non-traditional means of recruitment, and looking at the type of language we use.
The Inclusion and Diversity programme is an important scheme for us, helping us to really make a difference in inspiring the leaders of the future. It’s something that we do pro-actively, on top of our day-to-day jobs, and the fact that we’ve seen more and more colleagues join the team since we launched demonstrates the level of passion we collectively have for creating an industry which is more inclusive for everyone.
The team and I look forward to updating you with progress in future updates.
[1] https://inews.co.uk/news/business/women-and-ethnic-minorities-missing-out-on-top-positions-in-britains-tech-boom/
