Category: EngTog News

All members of EngTog support all things fairness and inclusion. So INWED (International Women in Engineering Day) is always a key date in our calendar. We are proud to work alongside WES Tyne and Tees with Jo Douglas-Harris as our Diversity Champion and current holder of the prestigious Isabel Hardwich Medal. Every year INWED is the day the WE50 list is announced and our very own EngTog Chair shall be helping to present the awards to this years worthy winners. We could not be more proud of our members contributions and collaborations.

At Engineering Together we know why and how to collaborate. It was great to see the EngTog ethos at the heart of the Tees Nature Conference 2024. This graphic from #YouveGotThis really summed it up. Together we can trust each other to make the world a better place.

Well done to our Chair who attended the STEM Ambassador Celebration Event at the National STEM Centre in York. She was asked to give a speech about her wide reaching volunteering work as the STEM Ambassador who has recorded the most hours in the last year. Congratulations Paula

Our Chair, Paula, was delighted to speak to NAWIC and WES Tyne and Tees about her 30+ year personal journey in engineering where she has seen many improvements such as the introduction of site toilets, better PPE and the introduction of improved policies. 

But seeing greater diversity in our workplaces means we need to ensure everyone is made to feel welcome!  Unfortunately, from personal experience Paula knows that biases and associated micro aggressions are still causing harm and preventing us from reaching our collective potential. 

Paula overviewed her inclusive campaign where people can find out if it is OK to use certain language.  TheLine has a twist; it also allows people who are inadvertently upsetting others to get involved without judgement. 

Paula also used this session to launch her exciting #SilentMajority options encouraging those who usual don’t part take in these sorts of campaigns.

Listen on our EngTog YouTube channel.

We are delighted to see that our Chairs efforts have been rewarded at the Tees Business Awards. Paula picked up the Making a Difference award. In addition she was a finalist for the Lifetime Achievement as well.

Read all about it at https://teesbusiness.co.uk/2024/04/19/night-of-drama-at-tees-business-awards-2024/

Based in the Tees Valley the Stockton to Darlington Railway is very local history.

We are delighted to share that S&DR200 – a heritage and arts festival – will take place from March to November 2025 celebrating the 200th anniversary of the world’s first passenger and goods train journey, which took place on the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) in 1825.   

The festival will celebrate this globally significant journey which gave birth to the modern railway, whilst looking to the future.  It hopes to attract 1.5 million visitors from all over the UK and the world to events and exhibitions in the public spaces and world-class museums of County Durham and the Tees Valley.

The full programme of events will be announced in September 2024. Until then feel free to sign up to their newsletter to be part of S&DR200!  

Our Chair, Paula, was delighted to hear about the status and future of skills in the Tees Valley yesterday.

Paula was one of only three people who got to ask the prospective candidates at the North East Chamber of Commerce Husting a question.

She also got to speak to Zoe Lewis CBE at the event hosted by Middlesbrough College and found out how great this Tees Valley institution is doing as the biggest supplied of school leaver engineering courses in the country.

Our Chair Paula was delighted at the opportunity to spread the message that we need to Engineering Together more for a sustainable future workforce at the North East Institution of Measurement and Control annual dinner.

Many thanks to our EngTog member John Noon for the opportunity.

Our Chair was engineering together with the ICE, Common Room and Tyne Bridge team at the opening of the Tyne Bridge Visitor Centre (Tyne Bridge – Restoring an Icon) and the unveiling of the Dorothy Buchanan Plaque (Plaque unveiled to honour female member of Tyne Bridge design team — Tyne Bridge – Restoring an Icon).

This collaborative approach to using history to highlight the diversity issues today, working together, community liaison, thinking of wildlife and of course technical engineering challenges all make us very happy at EngTog.

When Primary Voices was set up less than 3 years ago no one dared to think how this would reach 20,000 students with the help of Engineering Together and our climate champion Julie.

Many thanks to Julie and all the other educators who helped reach this monumental milestone.