WES needs your help to build on the amazing things we are doing and relationships we are developing this year. Below is a list of the current volunteering opportunities we have available. If you are interested in any of these, please contact Cath Heslop in the office to discuss further.

Speaking at Careers Fairs and Encouraging Girls into Engineering

At WES we often get requests from schools for young women engineers to go in to schools to help out with specific projects, or to speak at careers fairs. If you are interested in doing this, then email the office at info@wes.org.uk and we will try to match you up with some of the requests that we get in, or better still contact your local schools and tell them you are available should they need you. Click here for help and tips if you are doing this.

We are currently looking for volunteers to attend following events:

8th March, University of Chester,  Inspirational speakers required at conference for teenage girls
The University of Chester are hosting a conference for Year 11, 12, 13 girls from schools and colleges in Cheshire on International Women’s day, 8th March.  They are looking for inspirational female scientists and engineers to speak at this conference.  Would you be interested in doing this?  Contact Cath at the WES office here for more information.

Could you offer a week's work experience/work shadowing in the London area?
We have been approached by a 15 year old girl interested in a career in engineering or science.   Please contact Cath for more information.

Other Ways to Volunteer

The following projects (in no particular order) are examples of work that WES would like to undertake. If you would like to take on – either individually or as part of a group – the organisation of any of these activities then please get in touch with Cath Heslop at info@wes.org.uk.
Conference 2013
We would welcome a volunteer to assist with the organisation of the 2013 WES annual conference, or help with the 2013 student conference. This would probably require some experience of event organisation.
MentorSET
MentorSET is a mentoring programme that has been successfully running through WES for 10 years. It has reached a stage where it is no longer able to continue due to lack of funding. A volunteer to look into ways of finding sustainable funding to enable MentorSET to continue is sought.
Young WES Member Set-up
Set up a category of ‘Young WES member’ and offer this to school age girls who express an interest in following a career in engineering. See attachment below for further details.
Design of WES Exhibition Stand
WES often gets asked to send representatives to conferences and exhibitions, and we would like to develop a stand which can be used for this purpose. See attachment below for further details.
University Liaison Scheme
This is a scheme to offer support to all participating Universities and colleges offering engineering courses. See attachment below for further details.
Women in STEM Statistics
A fact sheet pulling together all of the current statistics on women in STEM subjects needs to be compiled, in easily distributable format, for information purposes. This can then be used effectively to help the campaign to encourage companies to target and employ women more effectively.
WES Data Cleaning and Addition of Contacts to Salesforce
We have a large amount of data (contact information) held on our Dropbox folders (as spreadsheets) and multiple business cards. These all need cleaning and transferring to Salesforce so that we can be more effective with our communication and marketing.
Communication and Marketing
WES needs to promote itself and the work that it does more widely, in order to obtain more members and encourage greater participation by women in engineering. See attachment below for further details.
Distribution of WES Literature to Stakeholders
WES has recently had some fab new literature printed, but at the moment this is sitting in the warehouse. It really needs sending out to appropriate stakeholders as soon as possible, along with letters of introduction. Somebody close to the offices in Stevenage would be ideal for this task.
Sponsorship in Support of WES Prizes
Sponsorship from companies (or individuals) is sought to support the current WES prizes. We are looking for somebody who is well connected and persuasive, who could bring in some funding to support our prizes and awards.
Establishment of a Further WES Prize
WES would like to establish a prize for Incorporated Engineers similar to the Karen Burt award for Chartered Engineers. This needs a champion and some sponsorship.
Website Update
Somebody good at website updating is required to update parts of the WES website. Have a look around it – you will see what we mean!
WES Fellows Scheme
WES is planning to introduce a Fellows membership category. This will need setting up from scratch and administering. Help with either the set up or the administration is sought (or both).
WES Council Membership
If you would like to influence the strategy of WES, and get involved in executive decisions, why not think about joining the Council and shadowing one of the current members to take up a post such as Treasurer, Membership Officer or even President in the future? This involves attending 4-5 Saturday meetings per year.
Responsibility for Corporate Member of WES
WES has had a number of Corporate members in the past (i.e. Companies who have joined and enrolled all of their women engineers as members). These have dwindled lately as we have not had the time to concentrate on fostering our relationship with them. This person would be good at networking, persuading companies to take out corporate membership, and fostering and maintaining relationships with them.
Gender Equality and Diversity
This is an important area for WES, and one which requires some dedicated volunteers to promote. Please phone for a chat if you are interested in this area.
WES Ambassador
This role is to represent WES at schools careers fairs, events or conferences where we are asked to send representatives. You could wait to be asked (infrequent), or be proactive and offer your services to your local schools/colleges.
Contribute to the WES Journal or e-Newsletter
If you are good at writing, then why not write for the journal or contribute to the newsletter?
IT Systems support
Are you an IT professional? We require help and support in keeping our systems up to date, and advice on which systems would work best.

This is not an exhaustive list, and if you have ideas of your own, then please feel free to phone us at the office for a chat. We are happy to support all volunteers working in any relevant area.
These projects have varying degrees of difficulty and would take varying amounts of time, and in most cases you would be working independently (or with a team that you are able to pull together). The bad news is that no budgets are available for the work unfortunately, and any funding needed would have to be raised. The good news is that these are all important projects, and anything you can do to contribute to this work will allow us to make progress.   Please note, all volunteers must be members of WES.
For further information on any of these projects, or to discuss any other ideas you may have in mind, please contact Cath Heslop on info@wes.org.uk or telephone 01438 765506.