The highly acclaimed WES Lottie Tour aims to encourage record numbers of junior engineers for 2021.

 

Taking place during Tomorrow's Engineers Week, November 8th-12th 2021, the 6th annual Lottie Tour sees a series of cute Lottie dolls don appropriate work attire and go off to explore the diverse and fascinating world of engineering. Lottie’s adventures are published on social media; young followers connect with her experiences when she travels across the UK and even as far afield as the USA, Malawi and Antarctica.

The WES Lottie Tour was dreamed up by the Women's Engineering Society Early Careers Board (WES ECB) and the people who gave birth to Lottie - Arklu. The Early Careers Board is a group of volunteer women, working and studying within engineering who are passionate about the wonderful and varied careers available in their fields.

 

Lottie Dolls CEO Ian Harkin said “the #WESLottieTour is my personal favourite time of year, since our first year in business we discovered how girls in particular were not following career paths in Engineering despite showing very high signs of interest at a young age. Stereotypes in educational facilities, in job interviews right through to barriers in career progression meant that girls were underrepresented in key Engineering roles. Having diverse representation in any organisation or roles is key to making optimal decisions. Showing women working in roles in a whole range of engineering career options shows kids that they too can do it “if you can see it you can be it”.

 

Lottie is a smart, curious 9 year old. Through her experiences of all the interesting things engineers do and by meeting amazing female role models working in engineering roles, Lottie helps her real-world peers see that there's a tangible, accessible and appealing place for girls in the world of engineering when they grow up.

During the tour, Lottie will be involved in the projects and practicalities of day to day life as an engineer, she'll ask questions of her hosts and get helpful answers that inspire her to explore what engineering might hold for her.

 

We want the girls following the Lottie tour to come away with a really positive, inclusive view of engineering, appreciating the wealth of different sectors and disciplines that engineering opens up to them. Through Lottie, we're building a future where engineering is an obvious, attractive and attainable choice for girls and young women, no matter who they are or where they're coming from.

 

WES Lottie Tour is organised by members of the Early Careers Board (ECB), Kate Mactear and Vera Ngosi-Sambrook. Kate said “I love organising the Lottie Tour as each year I learn about a role in engineering that I didn’t know about before. Seeing the photos of Lottie at the huge variety of engineering companies she visits makes me proud to be an engineer and even more proud that we can show the younger generation what it means to be an engineer!”.

 

We won’t spill the beans on everything Lottie will be getting up to this year. That’d spoil the surprise. But if we tell you that she’s had a special uniform made by a legendary F1 racing team for her visit to them, you start to get the picture...

 

Lottie's experiences are shared across social media by her hosts, on the main Women’s Engineering Society social channels and specifically the WES Early Careers Board who organise the campaign each year using the hashtag #WESLottieTour. Anyone is welcome to share these with the young people in their lives. Teachers, youth group leaders and other educators or childcare providers might also find the downloadable posters in our resources section useful.

 

Thanks to our generous sponsors McLaren Racing and GKN Automotive, we’re able to conduct our widest ever marketing programme for the Lottie Tour to date, with the aim of reaching a record number of young people and sparking an interest in engineering.