The Taskforce provides energy, direction and resources to the SIP’s careers outreach activities and supports the SIP Ambassadors, who work with young people, parents, teachers and careers advisers to promote the many careers available within the science-based industries.
“I’ve worked at Pfizer since September 2020, having already spent an industrial placement year with the company between the second and third year of my degree in 2017/18.
Having graduated with a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Bath I joined the company’s graduate scheme, and at the end of two years I moved into a permanent marketing role.
One of the reasons I’m so passionate about my work with the taskforce is a result of my own journey through education and into the start of my career. People perhaps forget how many places a science degree can take you – I’m living proof that you don’t have work in a lab!
The SIP ambassador network is a crucial tool in helping attract a diverse range of talent into the science workforce across the UK. But to do their outreach work effectively they need the best resources and support the SIP can offer.
I see this workstream as having an important relationship with the other three, given the importance ambassadors have in helping the taskforce deliver on its objectives.
When the taskforce was set up last year, we were very clear that we wanted to understand how ambassadors were feeling about their activity going forward, and to create a baseline of what support they would need. This involved a range of engagement, including surveying our membership to gain a snapshot of the resources we had at our disposal.
To this end, we identified three key aims. Firstly, gaining qualitative feedback from ambassadors in order to understand the opportunities – and the challenges – they would encounter over the coming year, in the context of the disruption to their working lives and the ability to volunteer over the previous two years due to the pandemic.
Secondly, we’re looking to create resources which enable ambassadors to engage with the programme and do outreach in the industry in as user-friendly and time-efficient a way as possible, given how busy they are with their day-to-day roles.
And finally we’re setting up an ‘ambassador of the year’ award to champion the achievement of the ambassadors, encourage a culture of recognition and increase their visibility across the industry.
This is an exciting time to be involved in the taskforce and we’re keen to increase the resources working on each theme.”
