Future Minds: Creativity, Perseverance, and Collaboration

Our Young Women in STEM event is held every year at our three centres, where we welcome young women, aged 15-19, to spend the day with us to find out more about our industry and the career opportunities available. This year the theme was creativity, perseverance, and collaboration. Our event leads share how the day went and why they got involved. 

Abbie Austen – Whiteley Lead

Having joined NATS at a young age, as soon as I heard about the opportunity to inspire girls within the same age bracket and more importantly at a stage in their education where they will be making important decisions, I jumped at the opportunity to lead the event for our Whiteley site.

Working alongside Donna and Fi we felt incredibly lucky that so many colleagues choose to support educational outreach activities like this and very quickly built an army of volunteers to pull the day together. On the day I was in awe watching them all bring life to the work we do as a company, from our presenters, panellist, to our simulation teams, all inspiring the next generation; who were all fantastically engaged and enthusiastic throughout.

Without our volunteers and initiatives like Future Minds, we wouldn’t have had beaming smiles, new friendships made and people making immediate requests to come back for work experience, Industrial Placement’s, and a real desire to continue their STEM journey with us. I look forward to seeing events like this continue to make such a positive impact.

The students learning in the Sim at Whiteley

Donna Rae – Prestwick Lead

When I joined the company, I was struck by the fact that despite living only 15 minutes from Prestwick I didn’t know about NATS and the opportunities we offered. I have since spoken to lots of parents/councillors/teaching staff through the parent council at my daughter’s secondary school about what we offer. The aim is to drive awareness for young people in the area and 18 months ago there was a drive for STEM Ambassadors, and I jumped at the chance to be more involved. I’ve supported different events from visiting Primary Schools, attending Science events, Judging the Youth Philanthropy Initiative finals and assisting with our Future Minds events. Since being involved my outreach is estimated to be over 1,200 young people and I’m delighted to see this continue to grow.

There is a relatively small group of STEM Ambassadors across the organisation, but everyone works extremely hard, generally in their own time to support this important outreach. This year I was offered the opportunity to host the day and couldn’t say no. I couldn’t have done this on my own and was supported by over 20 colleagues at Prestwick and more people across the three sites. I have to say a big thank you to my own team and line manager for their support, ensuring I could be released to help plan and arrange events, without impacting our team requirements.

Ultimately at the end of the busy day, 17 young women, happy and motivated walked out of door on Wednesday with a smile and a spring in their step thinking about the vast array of opportunities that awaits them in our industry. That’s why I did the event and will continue to support our STEM and Educational Outreach programme.

Experiencing air traffic control at Prestwick

Fiona Joss – Swanwick Lead

I had the privilege of leading the day that we hosted at Swanwick. STEM is a particular passion of mine and I have had numerous opportunities to work in this environment throughout my career. Along that journey there have been many people which have had a positive impact on me, and this gave me the opportunity to reach out to those people and invite them to share their experiences with our young minds of the future.

What I was not really expecting (yes, I should have known better) is the amazing support that I would have in the run up to, and on the day by the army of volunteers that were keen to support from across the organisation. I would like to say a special thank you to Hannah Roper and John Oram who without their individual contributions on the day would not have run as seamless as it did. Collaboration is something I love to do; every day is a school day and widening that net of opportunity for us all with individuals across the business and beyond.

Abbie and Donna were fantastic role models with boundless enthusiasm to work together to make this event an inspiring and educational one for those that attended. Hearing the feedback from the volunteers on the day and what they took away from it, shows the value it also adds to us all. I am already planning the next visit with a couple of young women from Fantasy Wings to continue that momentum with a more detailed exposure to ATC, engineering, and analytics. I look forward to continuing to work with Paul and Jess to highlight the boundless opportunities within our impressive organisation.

Enjoying the LEGO challenge at Swanwick

It took just over 100 people to make the day happen, from tasks large and small, behind the scenes and out in front. The intention for this event, beyond introducing young women from a variety of backgrounds into our organisation for a packed day of activities, was also to increase collaboration in the company and create a blueprint for Future Minds to deliver more events in-line with our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion programme objectives.