SOCOTEC Geology Engineer Promotes Early Careers Opportunities to Students

Leyla Ipek, geology engineer within SOCOTEC’s Ground Investigation team, has been delivering assemblies to GCSE and A Level students across Herefordshire and Worcestershire to raise awareness of post-education opportunities with SOCOTEC. We spoke to Leyla to find out more about her experience delivering the talks, as well as the importance of promoting early careers opportunities at SOCOTEC to students.  

What did you discuss during your presentations to the students?

I have been delivering talks to GCSE and college students all over Herefordshire and Worcestershire. I spoke to the KS4 students about basic geology knowledge, volcanic formations, structural geology, stratum formations and the geological time scale, further demonstrated using a number of videos as visual aids. I then discussed my experiences studying geology at A-Level and at university. Lastly, I went into more detail about SOCOTEC as an organisation and discussed my experience of working there so far.

During my talks with the A Level students, I discussed what ground investigation entails, the different rig types and how they work and the various career paths you could apply for within the industry. I also explained how site activity is coordinated and referenced a selection of real life, on-the-job examples that I have acquired during my time with the business.

How did you engage with the students during your talks?

All of the students were incredibly engaged during the talks. I had intended to make the workshops interactive using a range of incentives to make sure that they paid attention, as well as providing plenty of opportunities to ask questions. I had several volunteers come up to the front with me to help demonstrate basic structural geology principles with a Mars Bar.

It was my aim to inspire KS4 students and make them think about taking geology at college or to another form of higher education. The students were very impressed with my experience thus far, particularly given the fact that I have not been in the industry for a significant period of time. A lot of them are now considering taking geology to university or are considering apprenticeships within the industry, which is fantastic to hear. 

Why was it important to you to deliver these talks?

I decided to put forward the idea about holding talks to two of my operations managers, as I am aware that the outreach of geology and engineering is low on a national scale and not many students are choosing to study these subjects. It's becoming a huge problem for the industry, even though it’s one of the most important jobs for the development of our planet.

I am extremely passionate about engineering, geology and the opportunities that this career can take you on across the globe. Many people are unware as to what geology actually entails – they think it’s just about rocks and don’t realise the vast amount of travelling that they can undertake while working in the field.

What feedback did you receive?

I received incredible feedback from all the talks that I held so far. I received many emails from teachers asking me to stay in touch with them, and I even made it onto the Kingstone High School website.

Do you think you will deliver more assemblies in the future after hearing the positive influence that it had for the students?

I would definitely consider doing more workshops with students and would like to branch out to university students in the future as well. Outreach about the topic of geology is so important for the construction industry, and we are crying out for more engineers across the country. Therefore, I feel it is incredibly important to make young adults aware of what the job entails and how varied and interesting a career in the infrastructure sector can be.

I am also in the process of working with women in mining and engineering to encourage more females to join the industry, helping the division continue to grow and build on incorporating a more diverse workforce.