BAME Volunteers Required

So non 'BAME' engineers cannot 'motivate young people ?


I am totally against the tone of this - the institution need to promote engineering, and engineering excellence. That has nothing to do with gender or race


What an utterly patronising and misguided request. I hope no one comes forward

I am offended, I think that it’s very discriminatory to exclude people based upon a protected characteristic such as their colour, race, origin or sexual orientation.

 The IET should be disgusted by this and if promoting such blatant discrimination needs to take a good hard look at the way it behaves.

A good point, this is outside the IET code of conduct that prohibits selection based on a protected characteristic


@Eruza - I suggest you remove this post

Eruza,

Whilst not BAME myself I totally agree with the need to have good role models and would be fully supportive of your request. There is a lot of evidence suggesting that young people are influenced by the people they identify with whether that be race, colour, gender or other identifying characteristics.

As to the IET not 'discriminating' we only have to look at Young Woman Engineer or WISE to see that these type of schemes to work and encourage under represented groups to engage.


Hope you get plenty of volunteers !


Richard

I am not offended by this, but I do think it is misguided. We do not want to be sending out the message "If you are BAME then you can be doing this" but rather "We can all work together to do this regardless of race/creed/sex, etc."  To this end I would suggest the motivational teams need to include all types of people to demonstrate this.

I do not see any reason to be offended by this. It would not be necessary if there was a level playing field in the first place.

I'm minded of how I vote in IET elections. I see mugshots and names, and if I'm being diligent I might look at the personal statements, for what they are worth. But at the end of the day, I'm deciding upon a glance at the photo, do I think this person is open minded, decent, a jobsworth or malicious. Doubtless my judgements are generally incorrect. In the absence of personal familiarity with all of the candidates, does anyone do anything different? I'm always happy to see candidates of mixed gender and ethnicity.

Yes I wish to join as Volunteer

Thanks

R N Rajpoot 

FIET,CEng

I was very surprised to start receiving emails from this forum, and saddened by the negative comments.


the IETs own website is committed to diversity to reflect the low representation of People from BAME communities within our workforce

https://www.theiet.org/about/vision-and-strategy/equality-diversity-and-inclusion/edi-strategy/supporting-race-and-culture-through-our-edi-strategy/


And I found a similar commitment at the RAEng

https://www.raeng.org.uk/diversity-in-engineering/business-benefits-key-facts


Positive BAME role models can only be positive step for our engagement with young people.

A copy of my earlier post following Evanna's explanation

I’m not sure what is going on with the system here. I have received all the posts by email, having not contributed to the topic, but only the original post is visible on the website?

As I read Erusa’s post, the request seems perfectly reasonable. There is a well-established and respected organisation https://www.afbe.org.uk/ which has adopted the “BAME” acronym. It has been widely supported by the IET and other organisations, including the Royal Academy of Engineering.  

There is a long tradition of formal special interest groups and individuals seeking to promote an agenda, or to express concern about issues relevant to engineering.

I have myself frequently expressed concern about the way in which governance of engineering profession, has allowed social snobbery and elitism to thrive. In particular the disadvantageous treatment of those who followed the apprenticeship pathway into engineering, relative to the academic one as teenagers. Although Engineering has enabled social mobility by some from working class backgrounds, academic advantage in school correlates with social class and class also correlates with race and ethnicity.

The issues involved in disadvantage are complex and multifaceted. We will not understand and resolve them by anyone becoming “offended”, or any other emotive reaction.  

If the intent of those who criticise Erusa’s effort, is to seek excellence and meritocracy, with wide and open access to engineering careers, then I agree with that intent.  I yearn for the time when it will no longer be legitimate for anyone to claim disadvantage.    

There should be an open and respectful discussion amongst IET members, engineering employers and other stakeholders about prejudice and disadvantage, in whatever form that manifests itself. I would willingly modestly contribute to such a discussion.