We are also working with award winning social enterprise WomEng, to engage girls in schools, technical and vocational colleges and universities within southern Africa and Canada to study STEM and pursue technical careers, with a mission to develop the next generation of highly skilled women for engineering and technology industries. Through workshops, exhibitions and innovation challenges, high potential girls are supported from school age, through university and into their early careers, with access to application support, mentoring and networks.
Events include:
- GirlEng #AskAnEngineer workshops and networks designed to create awareness of the importance of STEM subjects and provide students with practical tools and routes to access engineering and technology careers.
- WomEng Fellowship, designed to strengthen university students’ employability and leadership skills and cultivate innovative entrepreneurial thinking through the WomEng Innovation Challenge, whereby students are tasked to develop an engineering business solution to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
We are also extending our focus beyond students to support women founders build businesses, which are linked to the technology and sustainability sectors. We will link with partners from technical areas of our Building Forever framework, such as conservation and carbon neutrality, to profile careers and network with female role models in innovation and sustainability as we engage young women and founders.