Council’s £100k award for sports Women engineers celebrated at event
West Lothian Council spent over £ 100,000 on grants to sports clubs and individuals last year. The council’s Culture and Leisure Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel heard that the numbers of applicants had increased and the actual allocated budget of £104,000 had been exceeded by just under £5000. The West Lothian Council Sporting Grants Scheme aims to support local sports clubs, athletes, volunteers and coaches to build infrastructure and support development through funding in club development; education and training and to individual athletes. Money from the scheme also goes to partnerships, upgrade facilities, club accreditation, the Nelson Mandela Sports Bursary, sport scholarship passes and disability grants. Among the individuals who benefited were Elvie McLean who was selected for Scottish Schools Girls U15 Football squad and Amy Lewis, a rhythmic gymnast, who was selected to trial for the British Senior Performance Squad.
Families were given a taste of life as an engineer at a special event in Livingston.
Openreach’s training school threw open its doors to the public to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day.
The family fun day took place at the training centre – located on Grange Road just past the junction with Firth Road recently when local families had the chance to see the centre’s work for themselves.
It’s the first time the training school has been open to the public since its £485,000 revamp unveiled earlier this year, and organisers had host of fun activities to unleash the engineer in visitors of all ages.
The theme of the day was very much ‘having a go’, with engineering related games, challenges and activities for the whole family – from a dress- like- an- engineer selfie station and tower building to a draw-an-engineer competition.
There were show and tell sessions to see pole climbing, what’s in an Openreach van and how the internet reaches your house and female engineers were on hand to talk about their careers and demonstrate some of the high-tech kit they use on a day-to-day basis.
Visitors were also able to stroll down the newly- constructed Open Street – a replica street built from scratch at the centre, where engineers practise their skills in a real-life setting.
Openreach organiser Carol Buchanan said: “By the time our children go to school they already have views of which roles are for men and which are for women.
“To give our kids the best range of opportunities, and to attract lots of talented females to engineering, we need to do our bit.”
Edinburgh engineer Emma Hamilton added: “A career in engineering is extremely rewarding. It’s still a largely male-dominated career but times are most definitely changing.
“Being an engineer for Openreach is a fantastic job and one that I really enjoy.
“You’re always working with brand new technology which is exciting, and there’s huge satisfaction from fixing complex issues and getting people connected.”