Students of Our Lady of Victories Infants and Girls' School, Ballymun Road, Ballygall, Dublin 9.
ROD Environmental Scientist, Yana Bersunukayeva, explaining an engineering challenge to students.
At Roughan & O'Donovan, we are strong supporters of Engineers Week, an annual celebration of the exciting, fast-moving and challenging world of engineering.
Every year, our volunteers visit primary and secondary school children, in classrooms around Dublin, to talk about the diverse and exciting career opportunities engineering offers.
Our aim is to give children a chance to get ‘hands-on’ with engineering by setting them some everyday challenges designed to emphasise the creativity required in problem-solving.
We also talk about how the out-dated ‘man in hard hat’ stereotype can hold girls back from pursuing a career in engineering, and explain that most of our time is spent in creative problem solving – drawing and sketching out ideas – in the office, rather than out on site.
Speaking about the school visits, ROD's CPD Manager, Edward Warren, said:
We want to share our knowledge and enthusiasm with young people who, without role models, might otherwise discover their interest in engineering too late when they have made all the wrong decisions in terms of subject choices.
The majority of young people go through school believing that engineering is only for those who are really good at maths and science, so we emphasise the creative aspects of engineering and show that it is about solving problems, not just equations.