OPINION BALANCE OF THE SEXES
A new CIBSE women’s network called WiBSE aims to close the engineering skills gap by inspiring more females to enter and progress through the building services industry
The engineering industry is poised to play a vital role in the
regrowth of Britain’s economy. Yet there is a real skills shortage: over the next four years, it has been predicted that Britain will need to train 96,300 new engineers and scientists – just to replace those who will retire. These fi gures come from the recent Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) report, titled Jobs and Growth: the importance of engineering skills to the economy, which was published in September this year. Boosting the number of women working as engineers will play a huge part in tackling this challenge. With increasing industry emphasis on collaborative working and communication skills, alongside core engineering know-how, women bring a powerful mix to the table. In times of recession, the industry needs to be agile and to maximise all its assets to make a signifi cant and sustainable con tribution in the 21st century. To meet that challenge, Sarah
Davis, Susie Diamond and Gay Lawrence Race reinvented the CIBSE Women network as WiBSE (Women in Building Services Engineering) in early 2012. The WiBSE vision is to ‘inspire
the next generation and create the support network that will enable more women to join, stay and progress within industry and the Institution.’ WiBSE is open to all. The steering
group consists of eight members and reports into the CIBSE diversity panel. It is a formal CIBSE network with a microsite (
www.cibse.org/ wibse) a Twitter account (@CIBSEWomen), its own email address (
wibse@cibse.org), and a LinkedIn group at
www.linkedin.com WiBSE will be running a series of events including debates,
28 CIBSE Journal November 2012
presentations, personal development sessions, informal social gatherings/ fun events and formal training sessions, all aimed at meeting the needs of its membership. It is planning a spectacular launch
party in London for spring 2013 – sign up for its newsletter for further announcements. There will be regional branches
of the group, which is already established in London, Yorkshire and Australia. Anyone who may be interested
in joining the new group should visit
www.cibse.org/wibse and use the link to join the LinkedIn group, or contact it via
wibse@cibse.org New members will be added to the mailing list.
GAY LAWRENCE RACE As a CIBSE fellow I have worked with schools and careers initiatives, and I have
seen the female graduate intake increase, but there are still only 12 female Fellows in CIBSE out of nearly 1,000. It is evident that women are leaving the profession or not progressing as they should, and this network is a great opportunity to listen, and challenge some of these problems.’
Women bring a powerful mix to the table
SARAH DAVIS I am passionate about making our industry better and encouraging growth,
and I believe greater gender diversity can assist this. Both the Davis and Kinsey reports note that more diverse management teams make better strategic decisions and show increased profi tability. I have seen and experienced the benefi ts of bringing like-minded women together to support and encourage each other. We need to highlight female role models, give access to mentoring and offer personal development and training sessions. Our industry is amazing and I want more women to experience it.’
SUSIE DIAMOND I want WiBSE to be a powerful conduit for discussion and change in the industry. I’d love
the opportunity to bring together all the various stakeholders to develop solutions for these complex issues. WiBSE will provide a safe environment for honest discussion without prejudice, and I think that’s an exciting proposition. We are engineers – we can solve problems!’
● SARAH DAVIS is responsible for business development at OSRAM ● GAY LAWRENCE RACE FCIBSE is a specialist in building services guidance ● SUSIE DIAMOND is a founding partner at Inkling LLP
www.cibsejournal.com
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