TRAINING
Women are still under-represented in the water industry. Natasha Wiseman asked the IET’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year, Sally Walters, why water engineering is the perfect career
ally Walters, 30 (pictured), is a senior civil engineer with Pell Frischmann Consulting Engineers in Exeter. She won the Institute of Engineering
Technology (IET)’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year award in December 2009 for helping manage a multi- million pound water and wastewater project in Romania along with her dedication to promoting engineering through schools and universities. She recognises that women are still under-represented in the industry and believes that part of the problem is that the promotion of engineering still fails to make it attractive to women. “Women like to go into engineering because they like
‘There are so many routes in’
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“There are areas that aren’t particularly male
dominated or are becoming significantly less so, especially in civil engineering or even the environmental engineering side and there are far more opportunities to get involved in the greener technology.” However, the barriers to knowledge about engineering courses and careers is not only a gender issue, Walters’ work as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) ambassador is about widening participating in engineering to all children and young people in primary and secondary schools. There are a number of initiatives including the Big Bang event, after schools clubs and the website
www.futuremorph.org.
to see results and they like to see beneficial works and certainly working in the water and wastewater industry you know that the work you do delivers clean water to houses and it’s vital. I think engineering is a fantastic career for women and girls to go into,” she enthuses, “because it is very forgiving. You don’t have to be the top achiever to get a very good job. It’s open to all and there are so many routes in.”
The IET is also supporting initiatives to get young people into industry for
a year after A- levels, and weekends in university for 16-18 year old women. “I wasn’t aware engineers were involved in theatre or music videos or lighting or the innovative design of iPhones. And I certainly wouldn’t have known anything about sewerage and water,” she recollects, “I think that that is something that isn’t highlighted.”■■■
Top training – whatever the weather
From training in basicmeteorology to predicting and understanding the likely impacts of climate change on your organisation, John Hammond from the Met Office explains how its in-house college can tailor courses for water managers and hydrologists
locations anywhere around the world. All courses are to national NVQ and international WMO/ICAO guidelines. The Met Office also offers essential high-quality weather training to a wide range of government departments and industries, including water. Recent industry-specific courses have included: ■ Water - Introduction to Meteorology – a course designed to provide a better understanding of weather forecasts, weather radar and the Enviromet service. This course for Anglian Water delegates helped the customer make best use of Met Office forecasts and products available to assess the impact of the weather on their operations
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■ Applying meteorology for hydrologists – a course tailored to provide those who work
26 Water & Wastewater Treatment May 2010
he Met Office College provides a wide range of professional weather and climate training both at its college in Exeter and at
within the industry, such as the Northern Ireland Rivers Agency. Students with appropriate meteorology are trained to gain a better understanding of meteorology and the key Met Office services used in their role – enabling them to perform more effectively
The Met Office is also involved in training a large number of hydrologists in meteorology as part of its Flood Forecasting Centre programme and is fully aware of the challenges the varied weather brings throughout the year to the water industry. The college’s water training reflects the changes the seasons bring, from frozen pipes in winter to droughts in summer. Current climate predictions indicate that the consequent warming trend of the atmosphere could impact on the intensification of the
hydrological cycle with winter rainfall expected to increase, while during the summer months, overall rainfall is predicted to decrease. Meanwhile, rainfall intensity could increase, with the potential for flash flooding. The Met Office Hadley Centre has been named as the world’s leading geosciences research centre and has provided the UKCP09 projections, now being used across industry to form the basis of climate change adaptation reports. The centre is working with water companies and the wider hydrological community to assess the impacts of climate change on their businesses. These can help address the following issues: how infrastructure will cope with more-intense rainfall; if an supplier can meet demand in lengthy dry periods; if infrastructure can withstand changing temperature extremes; what happens if customers do not receive the service they expect; how long it might take to develop new resources; how water companies will meet regulatory requirements. Met Office College courses can provide
Flooding is likely to increase with climate change, but Met Office courses can help water company staff mitigate the risks
customers with the facts about climate change and the body of evidence and science that sits behind these facts. This training allows them to be able to understand the science of climate change and assess the key impacts on their
organisations. ■■■
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