Supporting inclusive leadership with the Royal Academy of Engineering

The Inclusive Leadership Programme is an exciting opportunity to lead the engineering profession towards a more inclusive future and we’ve assembled a team with varied experience in their engineering careers to take part.  

Over the next 18 months, Cathy Fraser, Deepak Lala, Abhijit Chakrabarti and Dan Auty, will have access to knowledge and guidance on inclusive leadership including in-depth training; reciprocal mentoring; sponsorship; coaching and peer-to-peer workshops. They will apply their learning by creating and implementing an inclusion project focused on increasing inclusivity within the ESO.

Deepak Lala, explained why it's important to be part of the programme: 

“We want work to be a place where everyone feels like they can belong. We’re really excited to be able to explore how we can move the dial on inclusion and find out what more we can do. Being part of this pilot programme will broaden our horizons as individuals and we will be able to bring into the ESO all the learnings and best practice we uncover with our fellow participants. This is a really important step for us as an ESO and also the wider engineering family.”

The Academy’s recent report on inclusive cultures showed that the UK engineering profession needs to accelerate its drive to become more inclusive if the UK is to continue to be a key player in the global race for engineering skills. The leaders of an organisation play a critical role in the creation of its culture and those at the most senior levels are particularly influential and therefore key to growing an inclusive culture.

This is an approach that we are keen to champion at the ESO and earlier this year, on International Women in Engineering Day, we highlighted the work of women in engineering roles at the ESO who are changing the world through their vital work, including Faith Natukunda, System Capability Manager, a qualified Mechanical Engineer who has also won the Top 50 Women in Engineering 2023: Safety and Security award. Read more here.

If you’re interested in joining an organisation that encourages inclusivity, see our range of available roles here.