From Classrooms to Careers: COWI and the West of England Careers Hub inspire the engineers of tomorrow

COWI is an international consultancy within engineering, architecture, energy and environment, with several offices in the UK, including South Gloucestershire. COWI was interested in developing its schools’ outreach and approached the West of England Careers Hub after hearing about the benefits of engaging with young people. As a result of this meeting, Laura Ashman, Head of Bid Support at COWI in the UK, volunteered as an Enterprise Adviser, and was introduced to Yate Academy and Chipping Sodbury School, which is just a few minutes’ walk from the local COWI office.

Case study

The COWI team was very pro-active and offered work experience placements for students across both schools along with providing a ‘Teacher Encounter’ for a teacher at St Brendan’s College – a day spent gaining subject-relevant work experience which they can then share with their classes. Along with this, in partnership with South Gloucestershire Council, COWI supported students from the Castle School with CV writing and mock interview sessions at the South Gloucestershire Business Show.

COWI has now become a Cornerstone Employer, where a small cross-section of employers from the West of England region provide high quality careers outreach and opportunities for young people aligned to the local economy. As COWI was already delivering impactful outreach as part of its mission to extend its social value activities, it was a perfect addition to the Cornerstone group of employers.

Visit to the House of Lords

COWI is also a long-standing sponsor of the All-Party Parliamentary Engineering Group which supports the collaboration between schools, future engineers, parliamentarians and industry experts. Membership of the group comprises of officers from the House of Lords and House of Commons. Key figures from business, education and other organisations and institutions involved in engineering are invited to the event to inspire the next generation of young engineers

Every year, COWI invites up to three pupils plus a teacher to attend each of the three annual lunches. This year, The Careers Hub helped to ensure that students from Chipping Sodbury School could accept the offer of the visit to The House of Lords to discuss the theme of Driverless Vehicles.

What the participants said:

Pupils and the teacher gave some brilliant feedback about the event:

“There were some very interesting conversations and presentations from the guest speakers. The question and answer session was stimulating and made me think of lots of issues related to driverless vehicles. I really enjoyed the day.” - Pupil 1

“I learnt a lot about driverless vehicles and realise this is a very complicated issue, much more so than I had previously thought. The day has really inspired me to follow a career in engineering.” - Pupil 2

“We all gained a great deal from this valuable opportunity to participate in the discussion at the House of Lords. The benefits for the students was immense including not only inspiring them by mixing with such a range of people but raising their aspirations. Their preparation before the event and the discussions during the lunch helped them to consider so many serious issues related to driverless vehicles. All COWI staff made us feel very welcome and we all thoroughly enjoyed their company. A huge thank you from us all.” - Katherine Turner, Head Teacher at Chipping Sodbury School

The benefit to the business:

The team at COWI also said that the event was highly beneficial for them:

“The event offered school students a valuable chance to engage with young engineers, explore the field of engineering, and learn about cutting-edge innovations through expert presentations. It also fostered networking among students from various schools, connecting them with like-minded peers” - Danish Sanwal, Engineer at COWI

“Having arrived in engineering from a programming background, it was a joy seeing the two fields intersect at the event on driverless vehicles. The students were able to engage with the content of the presentation and following conversation in ways that can only be seen in these types of outreach events.” - Perry Chinnama, Assistant Engineer at COWI

Volunteering opportunities

Become an Enterprise Adviser

Enterprise Advisers work directly with the school’s leadership team to develop and implement an effective careers strategy, that puts opportunities with employers at the heart of a young person’s education.

The role of the Enterprise Coordinator is to harness the relationship between the Enterprise Advisers, schools and colleges through ongoing training and support.

What is the Careers Hub?

The Careers hub provides support for our business volunteers to work with the Careers Leader and wider senior leaders of a school or college to create opportunities for young all people.

Discover volunteering opportunities