Edrington
Do you sometimes struggle to explain to others what you do at work? Then how do you explain it to a room full of primary pupils?
It’s a challenge that Laura King has embraced in her work as a STEM Food & Drink Ambassador.
The 33-year-old works as Group Compliance Auditor and Systems Lead at Edrington, based in Glasgow. There, she manages the company's integrated management system that includes incidents, audits, non-conformities, supplier records and document control.
But when she’s talking to young people, instead of talking about software or processes or auditing, she’s found that her central group role has given her the ideal platform to demonstrate the diversity of STEM roles that exist within a company.
“It’s important to me they release not everything in a factory is about driving a forklift,” she explained.
So how does she explain what she does?
“We usually start with a cartoon image of a factory with things going wrong,” said Laura.
“It gives a practical demonstration of what you do in an audit and the type of thing you have to spot. To be fair, they pick them all up pretty well and they turn into junior auditor detectives.”
And this sets the tone for how Laura likes to explore what she does.
“I keep it practical with lots of fun and colourful activities. There’s no boring Powerpoint, although I do take a couple of slides to introduce myself. That’s mainly to include a picture of my dog and I talk about my hobbies. They’re always particularly interested in my passion for video games.”
Another tactic Laura uses is questions.
“Instead of explaining things, I like to get them thinking. So I often take in PPE (personal protective equipment) and ask them things like ‘Why would you need boots with very hard toes? Why does the jacket need to be fluorescent orange? Why would you need to put something in your ears or shield your eyes?’
“It gets them thinking and you can almost see the cogs in their brain start turning,” she said.
So how does she explain STEM as a concept to primary school pupils who perhaps haven’t had as much exposure to subject choices as their secondary counterparts?
“Instead of explaining things, I like to get them thinking. So I often take in PPE (personal protective equipment) and ask them things like ‘Why would you need boots with steel toe caps?’”
After explaining what she does, she often goes through the STEM acronym letter by letter. So whether the S in science is talking about the laboratories at Edrington, Technology touches on the software she uses as part of her role, Engineering brings in a whole team of people doing different things and Maths shows the part data-crunching plays, with reports and statistics and what they reveal.
She says she can tell they’re engaged by the number of questions they ask.
“I’ve never had a problem with levels of enthusiasm, particularly with primary pupils,” she said.
“Of course, some are better behaved than others. You can have a class of absolute angels, swiftly followed by a class who are very talkative. It is important to adapt to the class and make sure they do what’s asked of them.”
She’s also often surprised by the level of interest from teachers. Sometimes they approach her after the class to ask more about what she does and several have asked if they can come into the factory to see what it’s like.
For herself, Laura says her work as a STEM Ambassador has helped her grow in confidence in the workplace.
“I’m much better at talking to people and interacting with groups of people,” she said.
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