Waterbeach hosted its first Make Your Mark event in October which was designed to promote the wide range of careers and opportunities available for women in the development, property and built environment industries and to inspire them to follow a career in these fields.
We hosted 85 pupils from years 8-10 from a number of local schools; Bottisham, Impington and Cottenham Village Colleges, and Northstowe Secondary College, who got the chance to learn more about the development at Waterbeach and how to launch a career in the development industry.
The day was supported by representatives from organisations including David Lock Associates, Bradley Murphy Design, South Cambs District Council, Make Spaces for Girls, Stonebond, Jupiter Play and more. Two sessions were organised for the attendees; the first, hosted by DLA, gave attendees the opportunity to masterplan their own ‘perfect town’ using the CHLOE software. The second activity was led by BMD and Make Spaces for Girls and encouraged the pupils to use their creativity to design their own female-friendly playspace or public space with a range of craft and collaging materials.
Make Your Mark also offered talks from leading female figures within the industry, including Julia Foster and Laura Bradley from DLA and BMD respectively, and provided a Q&A where the attending girls could ask questions and provide feedback on what they’d like to see in their ideal development. This session was remarkably well received and ended running over schedule as a result of the engagement from the pupils. The ideas we received included providing charging points in play equipment, creating rope swings that fly directly into the lake, and more accessible spaces for people of all ages and ability levels, amongst many others.
Make Your Mark brought some of our key people together with leading female role models from across the various sectors in which we operate and hopefully will have inspired the next generation of women to really make a difference in development. This is the first in a series of events that we’ll be offering to local schools to promote careers for young women, so it’s fantastic that we started off on such a positive note.”
Caroline Foster
Development Director at Waterbeach
Cottenham students were fully engaged in this unique experience and were inspired by the people that they met at this event. The key speakers and activities opened up a world of opportunities that they may otherwise have not encountered. The students also found it empowering to see women working in planning and development and taking leadership roles. One student said, "It was really great because it made sure that women have a voice in the designing world."
Helen Scully
Careers Coordinator, Cottenham Village College