adi Group celebrated Tomorrows Engineer’s Week 2018 by joining over 150 businesses across the globe in welcoming a Lottie Doll to our workplace as part of the Women’s Engineering Society initiative to inspire more young people into engineering.
Lottie spent time at adi’s head office facility learning more about the range of engineering services for industry the Group currently offers and spent time with a number of divisional teams and apprentices ranging from mechanical engineering and automation through to climate systems and electrical engineering.
This year marked the the third year that members of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) posted photos of Lottie Dolls at work during Tomorrow’s Engineers Week (5 – 9 November 2018) to show the huge range of careers available in engineering. During the week, photos were posted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #LottieTour, as well as blogs describing what Lottie got up to in more detail uploaded on the WES and Lottie Doll’s websites.
The aim of the project was to present images of what a career in engineering might look like by use of a Lottie Doll, to help capture the imagination of young girls and boys. The plan is for parents, grandparents and other family members and friends to share the online photos with the young people in their lives who may not have access to social media, so that this sparks an interest in engineering.
Over 150 engineers, female and male from all over the world, have been involved in taking photos using Lottie Dolls borrowed from WES, coordinated by the WES Young Members’ Board. Lottie Dolls donated an additional 50 Lotties to the WE50 winners so they could participate too. This year, Lottie Dolls produced bespoke PPE for WES including hard hats, high vis jackets, safety glasses and lab coats, so Lottie is ready to go on to site or into a lab.
In addition to adi Group, Lottie has visited a number of engineering companies in the UK including National Grid, Balfour Beatty, Aston Martin and Arup, UK universities including the Open University and Heriot-Watt, and has been to Finland, USA and Dubai.
Claire Frays, Group Communications Officer said, “We were delighted to welcome Lottie to adi Group head office. Inspring more young people into engineering is something we are extremely passionate about so to be involved in the #LottieTour project and show our own engineering story to promote the sector and careers in engineering with other volunteers across the world was an exciting initiative to be part of. We hope to welcome Lottie back to adi next year.”
The #LottieTour project was organised by WES YMB members Kate Mactear and Jo Douglas-Harris. Kate said, “It’s been great organising the Lottie Tour this year with Jo. We’ve had a huge response from volunteers keen to get involved with what we all believe is a fantastic project. We think the Lottie Tour is a great way to show young girls and boys that an engineer isn’t just the person who fixes your car or the builders on a building site, it’s so much more!”
Lottie Dolls have sought to fill a gap in the toy market with their real-life child inspired dolls and an ambition to disrupt gender stereotyping in the toy aisles. Recent additions to the collection include ‘Wildlife Photographer’, the world’s first mass produced doll with a cochlear implant, and – just in time for Christmas 2018 – ‘Kid Activist’ inspired by Mari Copeny AKA Little Miss Flint and ‘Loyal Companion’ inspired by Hayden Geraghty an aspiring astronaut.
Lottie Dolls MD Ian Harkin said, “This is the third year we have worked with WES during #TEWeek, last year we reached over 500,000 people during the week with really powerful imagery of engineers in their workplace together with Lottie. The images then get shown to children by their parents and teachers by following #LottieTour and #TEWeek18 on social media. We have potentially 10 times the number of companies/people participating this year. “If you can see it you can be it” really rings true here, there are so many exciting careers that we are privileged to get an insight into during the week, the hope is that it will spark an interest for a future potential career in engineering or science.”
WES President Dawn Childs added, “It is so important to inspire the next generation of engineers, particularly when there is an ever-burgeoning skills gap. Sparking that first flicker of interest and getting young minds engaged can be the spring board that is needed towards engineering as a career. The Lottie Tour is a fabulous way to provide that initial spark and to show the breadth of amazing things that engineers can do.”
If you would like to register your interest to be involved in the Lottie tour during the WES Centenary year in 2019, please contact the YMB at [email protected]. If you would like to follow Lottie’s Tour this year, all of the images from the week can be viewed by searching #LottieTour on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, or following @YMB1919 and @Lottie_dolls on Twitter.
Photos from Lottie’s visit to adi Group can be found across all adi Group social media channels.
Notes to Editors
Women’s Engineering Society
Founded in 1919, the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) is a professional, not-for-profit network of women engineers, scientists and technologists offering inspiration, support and professional development. Although the world has changed since a group of women decided to band together to create an organisation to support women in engineering, the need is very much still there. WES works in a number of ways to support women in STEM, to encourage the study and application of engineering, to promote gender equality and diversity in the workplace, and to award excellence and encourage achievement through our awards and grants schemes. WES will be celebrating its centenary in 2019. For further information contact the Women’s Engineering Society, Michael Faraday House, Six Hills Way, Stevenage, Herts. SG1 2AY Tel. 01438 765506, email [email protected]. www.wes.org.uk
WES Young Members’ Board
The WES Young Members’ Board (YMB) was set up in 2016 with the aim of making WES more accessible for younger members. For more information visit www.wes.org.uk/ymb
Lottie Dolls
Lottie Dolls were launched in August 2012. The collection of dolls and accessories are now on sale in over 30 countries and have won over 30 international toy awards. Developed alongside British academics, the bodies of Lottie Dolls are proportionate to nine-year-old children rather than to adults. The brand’s mission is to encourage all children – regardless of gender, ability or ethnicity – to follow all their dreams, to be themselves, to play – imaginatively and adventurously – and to have fun. Lottie Dolls are empowering toys for girls and boys alike. www.lottie.com
Tomorrow’s Engineers Week
Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2018 (#TEWeek18) takes place 5 – 9 November 2018 and shines a spotlight on engineers and engineering careers. It is an opportunity to highlight to young people the incredible things engineers work on and the range of jobs available in the industry. https://www.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk/tomorrows-engineers-week-2018/