Graduate Volunteering Profile: SheCanEngineer

Tell us about SheCanEngineer. 

SheCanEngineer is a volunteer-led charity with a mission to celebrate and support women in engineering and inspire the next generation. Founded in 2016, we've since grown into a multidisciplinary community of around 20 active volunteers, supported by a wider network of engineers and advocates across sectors including  infrastructure, energy, fire, manufacturing, and transport.

Most of our volunteers are practising engineers – from students to early-careers to chartered professionals – who contribute their time alongside full-time technical roles or study. This gives us a unique connection to the lived experiences of women navigating engineering today, and it helps us shape activities that are relevant and impactful.

SheCanEngineer is based in London but operates nationally through outreach initiatives, hybrid events, and partnerships with companies, professional institutions and universities. We’re not a particularly large organisation, but our passion, reach, and collaborative ethos mean we regularly partner with professional institutions, universities, and engineering employers of all sizes.

What is the driving force behind the organisation? 

It's been shown time and time again that diverse teams produce better engineering outcomes – through increased innovation, improved problem-solving, and broader societal relevance. Yet despite progress, women still make up just 16.9 per cent of the engineering workforce in the UK.

Our work is about shifting that statistic, through outreach and visibility, but also by creating professional support systems that foster long-term retention. We advocate for structural changes within organisations – such as inclusive hiring, equitable progression frameworks, and improved parental leave policies – while also equipping individuals with networks, skills, and confidence to thrive. Our activities are underpinned by systems thinking: we recognise that technical challenges are best addressed when people from different backgrounds are included from the outset, and that inclusion should be considered a core engineering competency.

At the heart of SheCanEngineer is the belief that engineering should be inclusive, and accessible to all. Our mission is to help shape an industry where people of all genders feel seen, supported, and celebrated – a space future engineers can get excited about joining and contributing to. 

What does volunteering for your organisation look like day-to-day?

Volunteering with SheCanEngineer is fully flexible and varied. Our volunteers can get involved with anything from planning major events such as our annual International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) celebrations to leading outreach sessions, creating content, or developing partnerships with other organisations.

Volunteers can get involved from day one - we often work in small project teams, giving volunteers the chance to contribute to something tangible, depending on their interests. It’s a great way to develop new skills, make a meaningful difference to the profession, and make friends (or grow your network!).

The time commitment varies – some volunteers give a day a year supporting a large event, others lead on projects and volunteer a few hours a month.

What we look for most in our volunteers is enthusiasm! You don’t need to have all the answers – just a willingness to get involved, learn and help create spaces for underrepresented voices.

Can you share any recent projects, research or events that the charity has organised or hosted? 

SheCanEngineer gets involved in a huge range of activities focused around DEI in engineering – we’ve talked more about a few of them below:

STEM outreach: Each year, SheCanEngineer hosts one to two STEM Days, bringing together 80 to 100 students from a range of schools across the local area. While the structure varies slightly, two core elements remain central: a Technical Seminar and a hands-on Technical Workshop.

In the workshop, students are grouped into teams and assigned engineering roles to tackle a real-world design challenge – like creating a stadium or a space station – within specific constraints. It’s competitive, hands-on, and designed to simulate the collaborative nature of engineering.

This interactive format consistently sparks curiosity and engagement among students, helping them connect classroom learning with practical applications in STEM. This year, we introduced speed-networking sessions, giving students the chance to speak one-on-one with engineers from a wide range of disciplines. 

Support in companies and with member institutions: Sessions have been run for corporations, Professional Engineering Institutions and conferences; with content tailored to their requirements and audiences. SheCanEngineer has designed and delivered talks and workshops to senior leadership, management, engineers and HR.

Gender pathways into engineering and technology: SheCanEngineer is part of a partnership led by EngineeringUK, BCS, RAEng, WES and WISE working to significantly increase the number of girls in education pathways to engineering and technology at age 18.  This has involved contributing to policy consultations and sharing evidence-based recommendations, as well as getting involved with task groups looking at curriculum reform and a whole school approach to gender equity and inclusive practice.

How do charities such as yours make a difference to the industry, not just on important days like today, but every day?

INWED provides a focal point for awareness – a chance to reflect and celebrate the women who are often under-recognised in the mainstream narrative of engineering. It can be a powerful catalyst for visibility and conversation – but real, lasting change requires continuous action. At SheCanEngineer we maintain year-round engagement through outreach programmes, celebration events, and support to employers on inclusive recruitment, retention and progression strategies.

Our aim is to embed inclusion into every part of our engineering workforce – not as a tick-box exercise but as a technical and ethical imperative. INWED gives us a day to take stock of how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go for equity. It energises our community, galvanises allies, and reminds us of the challenges that still lie ahead. It’s not the end of the story, it’s the beginning.

Finally, what is one piece of advice that you would give to young girls considering engineering as a future profession?

Go for it! Engineering is so many different things – it can be maths and physics but it can also be design and creativity. Engineering is a field that has a tangible impact on your surroundings – a space where you can make a real difference.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions and seek out people who can support you – mentors, teachers, friends and networks like SheCanEngineer. You don’t have to fit a mold to be a great engineer - some of the best engineers are those who can bring a different perspective. The world needs more engineers who reflect its diversity - and we’d love you to be one of them!

Poppy Harrison, Ruth Tatanga and Natalie Collcutt, SheCanEngineer volunteers. 

The Student Engineer is a special channel of The Engineer aimed at educating and inspiring engineering undergraduates about the career opportunities in engineering and also offering practical advice on how they can access these opportunities. 

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