Old Girl's Introduction to Civil Engineering

Old Girl Rachael Moulton (Class of 2010) joined Year 10 girls on Zoom during their form time as part of a series of Women of Work talks. After leaving Bolton School, she went on to study at the University of Bath and has since achieved Chartered Engineer status in November 2020. After working as a Highways Design Engineer for a number of years, she is now a member of the Operational Safety team at Atkins, which aims to improve the road network for road users and road workers, including by reducing the number and severity of road collisions.

Rachael was able to explain what Civil Engineering is as well as reveal the varied nature of Engineering as a whole. She shared a ‘What is Civil Engineering’ video made by the Institution of Civil Engineering which helped to show what it’s all about from different perspectives.

She spoke of travelling with her job, including an exciting three-month secondment in Bangalore and opportunities to travel across the UK for site visits. She said that she is able to work with interesting people in a growing market, but emphasised that Civil Engineering needs more women. She said, ‘It’s not quite an all-boys office, but it would be nice to have more girls there.’

Speaking about routes into Engineering, she talked about how UCAS can be a useful guide as it offers descriptions of the different jobs available through Engineering. She also emphasised that it’s possible to change direction whilst at university. She switched from Civil and Architectural Engineering to just Civil Engineering, as this focused on the subjects she enjoyed. She advised the girls not to worry and assured them, ‘There are so many options and you will find something you would like to do!’

Rachael ended her talk with the fun ‘Engine Ears’ song before offering one final piece of advice: to find useful work experience opportunities as soon as possible. She advised that the Year 10 girls should check out the Atkins Future Innovators scheme which offers some virtual, online work experience opportunities.

The informative and fascinating talk about Civil Engineering and Engineering more broadly no doubt helped Year 10 to think more about their future.