Get Involved!
If you are interested in finding out more about how to get involved with the West Cumbria YM Panel, then read on!
Who Are We?
We are the West Cumbria Young Members (YM) Panel of the IMechE. We're young engineers who are working towards Professional Registration, or have recently become Professionally Registered. We come from all walks of life and all have different types of jobs in different industries.
What Do We Do?
The role of the YM The role of the YM Panel is to put on events for young and aspiring engineers on the four key themes of the IMechE (Energy, Transport, Environment and Education). We also help promote engineering to young people in the local area. The majority of our work is focussed on organising events such as visits to local places of interest, technical lectures and further learning workshops to name but a few!
What's In It For Me?
Most people start out volunteering to tick the elusive boxes within the Accredited Competency Standard when working towards Accredited status, but quickly realise that there are many more benefits to volunteering, some of which are shown in the diagram on the right.
In a time when the news is full of stories of mass unemployment for younger people, getting any sort of edge over your competition could mean the difference between getting a job or not. Volunteering for a recognised Institution like the IMechE shows that you take your commitment to engineering seriously and also arms you with skills that many of your competitors won't have.
The overriding thing that we hear all the time is that Committee members get a chance to experience things that they would not otherwise be able to until much later in their careers. These sorts of things include creating strategies, managing budgets and leading teams of people.
Commitment
Nothing in life is free and we do hope you will give us regular commitment. We expect you to turn up to our monthly committee meetings whenever possible (they take place in a pub!) and to organise at least one event per year. We are flexible in terms of how many meetings you are able to attend (although nothing beats face to face in our opinion).
Typically, committee members commit around 5 hrs per month but if you take on a key role like secretary or chairman it can be more like 10-15 hrs per month. Don't forget that many companies will give you time to do work like this during your working hours.
Sign Me Up!
If you are interested, please contact any of the committee members using the contacts page.
People who are interested usually come along to one of our committee meetings to see what it's all about and then decide whether it's for them!
Got An Idea For An Educational Event?
The IMechE West Cumbria sponsor events that help develop the next generation of engineers, from primary school through to university. We also have experience of, and contacts for planning these types of event. If you are organising an event and would like to apply for funding or need some help to develop an idea, please submit a request.