Past projects
Olympic Project: The UKRC worked with a number of organisations involved in the 2012 games to strengthen the involvement of women in areas such as construction, engineering, technology. The Olympic Development Agency (ODA) and its operational partner the CLM Delivery Partner Ltd have signed the UKRC CEO Charter.
The UKRC ran a workshop on Equalities Monitoring for the ODA in May 2009, for its supplier partners involved in the construction and security of the olympic village. The UKRC also worked with the ODA to deliver a mentoring project for women working on the Olympic Park. The programme was launched in October 2009 as part of the ODA’s innovative Women into Construction scheme, and was open to women at all levels. The aim was to supply mentees with advice, career tips, and personal support. Mentors and mentees were trained by the UKRC and ongoing support was given.
London Engineering Project: the UKRC played an active role in this project, which completed a very successful three-year programme in 2009. The project set out to encourage more students to study engineering, targeting in particular girls, minority ethnic sutdents, and those with no family history of higher education. The UKRC's role was - through providing a skilled worker - to embed good gender equality practice throughout all the activities of theprogramme and help partners address gender as part of their regular activities.
The project was led by the Royal Academy of Engineering and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). It produced a number of valuable tools including a leaflet aimed at the parents of girls highlighting the benefits of engineering as a career.
Stimulating Physics: The UKRC delivered the gender component of this initiative, which aimed to increase the number of students taking Physics 'A' level. Positive outcomes included raised awareness among physics teachers, new initiatives to include girls, gender campions named in many of the organisaitons taking part and mroe girls expressing an interst in 'A' level Physics. The project was led by the Institute for Physics and was funded by HEFCE.
Women@work: an exchange programme in 2009 bringing together women from across the Middle East with female scintists from the UK. The UKRC worked in partnership with the British Council on this inspirational project highlighting role models for the next generation. We worked in particular with women from the pharmaceutical indsutry. After exchange visits, several of the women came together at the Women In Science: Networking for the Future event in Damscus, Syria.
eReturn and ePortfolios: In 2008 and 2009 UKRC joined up with other partners in a project led by the Open University to explore the possibilities of eportfolios for students. On-line learning environments are becoming an everyday part of school and college life - so at UKRC we are keen to understand the benefits of this way of working. The project (called eReturn) explored some of the ways in which eportfolios might help women trying to get work in science, engineering, technology and the built environment (SET) after a career break.
