Inspired by Outreach, Amy Dougan, Responsible Business Manager at McLaughlin & Harvey and Junior Vice-Chair, WiP Scotland
I’m extremely proud of my position as committee member and Junior Vice-Chair of the Central Scotland branch of Women in Property. When the announcement came that The People Innovation Place Summit was coming to Scotland, that pride just grew. I was excited that conference attendees would experience the lovely city of Edinburgh, where we, as a committee, have held so many successful events. The Summit brought together people from different geographical locations and different parts of the built environment. It was empowering to see women who hadn’t met before chatting and sharing stories about their work and journey through the sector. As a committee, we aim to break down stereotypes and provide outreach programmes that inspire young people in an education setting. This commitment was recognised recently when we were presented with the Diversity in the Third or Charity Sector Award at The Herald & GenAnalytics Diversity Awards in Glasgow.
As well as being a WiP committee member and Junior Vice Chair, I’m a Responsible Business Manager at McLaughlin & Harvey, a privately owned construction and civil engineering business with over 170 years of experience. McLaughlin & Harvey has a strong relationship with WiP and has supported their School Outreach Programme in recent years. At the Summit, our Pre-Construction Director, Martin Smith, led the ‘Inspired by Outreach’ session, discussing our involvement in the Programme and how only one female being part of his graduation class kickstarted a drive for him to influence more diverse groups, including girls and women, to join the industry.
As Martin said, outreach is about inspiring young people to consider a career in the built environment. In partnership with WiP, McLaughlin & Harvey has delivered the programme to secondary school students in Scotland since 2021, initially as an 8-week design challenge. We are proud that the programme has since been integrated into the school curriculum within two educational establishments. This programme enables students aged 12 to 13 to collaborate on designing a building with industry experts’ support and guidance. We have partnered with Douglas Academy in Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire, and Castlebrae Community Campus in Edinburgh, inspiring students to explore careers within the property and construction sectors. Rebecca, Andy, Brodie and Thora from the 2023/2024 Douglas Academy programme shared their experiences of the programme at the Summit, inspiring those in the room and creating a real buzz. The four students reflected on their experience and noted that teamwork and communication were incredibly important and working collaboratively meant the workload was shared and everyone contributed. They showed no nerves and did their school proud. Let’s hope they are future stars of our industry!
The theme for this year’s summit was Rethinking Places. I’m sure I’m not the only one who didn’t expect places to include space! The panel discussing ‘Why we should care about space’ was truly eye-opening and had the room’s full attention. The UK space industry was worth over £18.9 billion in 2024, offering opportunities across our industry. I, like many others, I’m sure, was unaware of the amount of investment the UK placed in space. This is perhaps because other countries like the USA tend to talk about it more frequently. Space seems very distant from our everyday lives but is far more intertwined with our day-to-day existence on Earth than perhaps the other attendees and I realised, particularly in addressing global challenges such as climate change. Scotland currently builds more satellites than any other country in Europe. The opportunities for businesses in the built environment seem endless if we seize on the opportunity.
I left the Summit feeling empowered, enlightened, and challenged, with the bonus of meeting many other like-minded women. The People Place Innovation Summit in Edinburgh was a fantastic event. Well done to WiP for organising it and Dynamic Earth for being such excellent hosts. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a Glasgow Summit in the future!