Written by Jennifer Glover.

Next week the Doctoral College’s blog will have a slight break from tradition by featuring a STEM outreach project written by Doctoral Researcher Jennifer Glover (Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering).

The Lottie tour is an annual social media campaign during Tomorrows Engineers week to promote engineering to primary school age children. The campaign follows the adventures of a Lottie doll as she discovers how varied and fun engineering can be. The aim is to educate on what engineers actually do and encourage girls to consider a career in engineer

You may have seen the recent BBC article “Career ambitions’ already limited by age of seven” written by Sean Coughlan. It highlights the barriers children face even before they leave primary school which limits their life choices. Perpetual stereotypes based on background, gender, or race results in a huge loss of talent to STEM fields, and campaigns such as the Lottie tour aim to dispel these myths. A fun engaging approach to careers choices that can be used by parents, family members and teachers alike, the tour is now in its fourth year. For more information, click here.

This blog will follow the adventures of Lottie at Loughborough University. This year’s theme is “then and now” and Lottie discovers an old Women in Engineering magazine from the 80’s and endeavours to find out how much engineering has changed. Join in through social media, share and use the blog to help encourage tomorrows engineering. Feel free to email Jennifer with questions or for more information.