Girls from Great Sankey High School demonstrating the #BalanceforBetter IWD pose
(Photo courtesy of United Utilities plc)
On 8th March 2019, SI Warrington celebrated International Women’s Day by collaborating for the second year running with United Utilities plc, putting on a STEM event for forty-five Year 9 girls from Warrington’s Great Sankey High School. The IWD theme of #Balance for Better was woven into the presentation of opportunities showcased by six companies: Unities Utilities, Jaguar Landrover, the Environment Agency, Wood plc, Atkins plc and Liverpool Clinical Laboratories.
Three of the companies offered high-tech interactive experiences using Virtual Reality headsets and the feedback from the girls was excellent: “Brill experience – really, really enjoyed myself! I’ve also learned so much!” and “I am definitely considering [a career in STEM] more, as I now know more about the opportunities.”
The day was followed up by a Project Day on 5th April, where the same girls got together to come up with creative solutions to challenges facing the water industry: how to persuade homes with no water meter to conserve water, and how to influence 14-24 year olds to take a key role in caring for the future of our water resources and sewerage system. June Bellis and Jackie Alexander of SI Warrington helped judge the outputs which were highly creative and relied heavily on the use of social media to get the messages across – a winning group gave an amusing yet serious take on how time is running out to “Save Water, Save Lives”:
Team “TimeKeepers” presenting “Save Water, Save Lives” (Photo courtesy of Jackie Alexander, SI Warrington)