Telent event celebrates International Women in Engineering Day

Colleagues came together at the Telent hosted International Women in Engineering Day celebration to drive continuous improvement for women in the industry.

On Monday 24 June, Mark Warrender, Chief Engineer – Rail hosted more than 45 Telent colleagues who came together to spend the day at the National Space Centre, Leicester in celebration of International Women in Engineering Day 2024.

The special celebratory event was hosted by Telent for a second year, following on the success of our inaugural event at Statfold Narrow Gauge Museum Trust in 2023.

This year’s event kicked off with a welcome reception and opening address by Jo Gretton, CEO recognising the great work women in engineering do every day, in line with this year’s INWED theme of ‘Enhanced by engineering’.

Throughout the morning women working in engineering at Telent shared their personal experiences offering honest accounts of their career journeys and how they came to Telent. The stories encouraged some great discussion points, leading to key takeaways for the business to implement and help to continuously improve the working environment for women in engineering and the wider business.

Guest speakers from across Telent shared their personal journeys on what it has been like for them as a Women in Engineering, providing valuable insight for the group and encouraging stimulating discussions.

Updates on projects were presented from the Telent acquisition team on their continuing drive for inclusive recruitment, Telent’s QEHS team on female specific PPE, followed by the Facilities team on the provision of free period products across Telent sites.

To end the day, guests were invited to sit back and enjoy an award-winning ‘fulldome’ show at the Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium, which highlighted the great contributions of the female engineers working on the Apollo program at NASA.

Jo Gretton, CEO at Telent

"Our INWED event was fun, engaging, and inspiring. Telent’s amazing Women in Engineering shared practical advice, life lessons and their fantastic achievements. Our conversation has raised lots of new ideas to implement to support women in the workplace, to increase the number of women working in engineering and to encourage more girls to pursue STEM subjects. The National Space Centre hosted us brilliantly and the planetarium show was a perfect end to the day. It was definitely a day which was #enhancedbyengineering"

Mark Warrender, Chief Engineer at Telent – Rail and Event Host

"It was an honour to host our celebration of IWED again this year, and what an amazing day it was! I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the presentations and the high calibre of our female engineers. The accounts of personal journeys and open discussion that followed were particularly insightful, helping understand what it means to be a Woman in Engineering today - fantastic!"

Here’s what some of the guests had to say:

Rachel Parker, Graduate Project Manager, Transport

"A truly incredible day! It was amazing and eye opening to hear from so many inspiring women who work at Telent. For someone who has only been at the company since September it was an honour to be in a room of so many strong women who represent Telent in a wide variety of fields. The environment created at the day made everyone feel welcomed and relaxed which allows us all to share our experiences. This is vital to continue the progress around the various challenges women face in the workplace"

Sukhi Chahil, Contract Services Manager, Transport

"It was lovely connecting with great women working in Telent and being able to share stories with one another. I was able to relate to a lot of situations others had faced and it was nice to not feel that I was the only going through it. There has been a significant change but there is more work that can be done. The male advocates support was greatly appreciated. Being able to be confident and support other women to be more confident in the workplace is key to progressing future changes"

Following another successful event and capturing your invaluable feedback planning for 2025 is already underway – watch this space!

Contact us