Future plans
Greg Smith, Chair of the BCIA Young Engineers Network, discusses some of the main talking points arising from the group’s inaugural meeting.
The first BCIA Young Engineers Network event of the year kicked off on 18th April, the first since I was elected as Chair. As such, it was decided that we would look to host the first meeting as an online chat to ensure not only that we could focus on our introductions and plans, but also so that we could ensure we could reach all engineers from across the country who have joined the Young Engineers Network (YEN).
It was a good turn out with many of the young engineers logging in to not only find out what the future plans are for the Network, but also to have their say and be involved in the conversation and direction.
Our keen drive within the Network is engaging with a view to bring more females into the engineering sector. Following on with a conversation on the matter, we ended up with a few members volunteering to form workgroups to focus on just this. We expect, with a few more meetings, we can begin taking some relevant steps toward achieving this goal in some part, whilst assisting with the big picture being tackled by the larger organisations and even government.
Our second main objective at the YEN was individuals’ training; focusing on improvement and gaining knowledge to all the engineers out there, ensuring that we can deliver a fantastic product, which is not only good for our respective businesses, but the main goal being to achieve sustainability, effective operation and, importantly, carbon reduction to limit harm to the environment.
Again, we opened up for discussion which was great to get some feedback, and altering viewpoints on the matter. I believe we found a way to move into how to deploy this objective with some assistance from our BCIA partners, and again, came away from the meeting with the early stages of a BCIA workgroup to engage this process.
As with a lot of things, we really rely on data to embellish some of the areas we are aiming to target, and as such, we should be sending out a short survey to each of the Young Engineers. Once we have this, we can hopefully start to really engage into the areas we have planned so expect to see some movement shortly.
As yet, it’s not fully decided, but we aim to hold our next meeting around June 2023 in the Midlands with a site visit and instructional CPD, followed by another great social evening. Watch this space for further information and, most importantly, remember to sign up if you haven’t already!
Are you aged 35 or under and working within BMS? Consider joining the BCIA Young Engineers Network.