Female students encouraged to make their mark in the development industry
- 04.04.2024
Following the success of last year’s event, over 70 female Year 9 students from five secondary schools across Huntingdonshire attended an event at Alconbury Weald (on 19 March) to find out more about the wide variety of career opportunities that are available in development, construction and the built environment.
The Make Your Mark event, designed to inspire young women to pursue a career in the development industry, showcased some of the roles and skills it takes to create a new place like Alconbury Weald; from engineering, planning and design to landscape and sustainability, project management and marketing.
Organised by Urban&Civic, master developer for Alconbury Weald, and supported by the development’s design team - including planners David Lock Associates and landscape and ecology experts Bradley Murphy Design - the event helped the students understand what it takes to create attractive, healthy and sustainable places to live.
Following talks from women in senior positions within the industry and a tour of Alconbury Weald, the students were given an opportunity to create their own community. Using a bespoke software platform that helped them consider everything from sustainability and climate change to heritage and ecology, they designed and presented their perfect place to live. The session also provided information on the different career options and pathways into these roles.
The students also took part in a design workshop on Runway Park, Alconbury Weald’s next strategic green space, to help shape the plans coming forward and help the team to develop outdoor space that works for young people.
It was a fantastic day. The young people were amazed by how much planning and design goes into every aspect of the development, from infrastructure and landscaping to the individual buildings. I hope it inspired them to look at the development industry in a new light.”
"There are some inspiring female role models within Urban&Civic and the wider design team of specialists that help design the new places and spaces we are bringing forward in Cambridgeshire.
Make Your Mark is part of our work to enable students to meet some of the amazing women working in the development industry, showcase the range of career opportunities available on the students’ doorstep, and provide opportunities for work experience, placements and mentoring as they take their next steps in their education.
It was great to see the ideas flowing and the thoughtful approaches in the workshops: the students have a real opportunity to make their mark, not just on Runway Park but in creating inspiring sustainable places in their own futures.”
Students from St Ivo Academy, Hinchingbrooke School, Sawtry Village Academy, St Peter’s School and Abbey College participated in this year’s event.
“The Make Your Mark event was a real eye-opener for our students, who had a great day and have come back absolutely buzzing and full of excellent feedback. It was fantastic for them to hear from female role models in senior positions within the development industry and I think it’s fair to say that some of our students will be looking into careers that they hadn’t previously considered."
