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The Automotive 30% Club Inspiration for Innovation Network Launches Today

In the midst of global upheaval and challenges that have never been seen before for many businesses, we are exceptionally proud of our Automotive 30% Club members for their sustained approach to the 30:30:30 strategy.

We applaud our Inspiration for Innovation Network sponsors CDK Global, also a Patron of the Club, and local sponsor partner MEPC, Silverstone Park for their continued strategic vision and direction of resources which is, now more than ever, critically required to focus on diversity and inclusion. Our sponsors’ passion for outreach into the world of education ensures that our younger generation receives the correct guidance to help address the career gender stereotypes or limited awareness that may have prevented them from considering a future in the automotive and related advanced engineering and tech industries.

This year we are going digital! This will allow us to negate the operational constraints of physical gatherings due to the Coronavirus. We’ll use leading-edge technology to create interactive and inspiring experiences and have a wide variety of activities so that each registered volunteer can choose the one that they enjoy the most. Options will include motivational speeches to large audiences, engaging with class sized groups about employability skills, taking part in a career speed networking session and being involved in multifaceted transformative experiences which will replace the physical inspirational events.

We’ll connect with primary and secondary schools throughout the UK creating access to opportunities for students to have meaningful encounters with experienced representatives including CEOs, directors and senior execs from diverse backgrounds. They will cover topics such as Digital Media, Marketing, Human Resources and Communications as well as Engineering, Technology and Design and will particularly focus on the post-pandemic need for employability life skills and mental wellness.

The purpose and key messages of the Inspiration for Innovation (I4I) Network are to tackle negative gender stereotypes and career segregation in girls and boys, and to ensure that young diverse women in particular, see automotive companies and related technology industries as employers of choice.

Our I4I Network activities are relevant for mixed-gender audiences and will showcase the importance of an inclusive culture and working environment in which all can thrive.  

We hope that you will join us in projecting this initiative to a wider audience via your peers and colleagues and work with us to share relevant social media content to promote and amplify the activities and ethos of the I4I Network.

Here’s a note from our UK wide I4I Network sponsor, Stuart Miles of CDK Global

“At CDK Global, we recognise that having a diverse and dynamic workforce is key to the advancement of the automotive industry. As a technology business continually striving to innovate and create, we know the huge importance of female employees to our organisation, and increasing their numbers across every part of the business is crucial to our long term wellbeing, as well as that of the automotive business at large. This is one reason, among many, that we are proud to have become a member of the UK Automotive 30% Club.

The future of our industry is reliant on attracting diverse talent from a young age.  By taking part in the Inspiration for Innovation Inspirational Events this past year we have been able to showcase both the technology and automotive industry as an exciting place to be; it encouraged ALL year 8 students to consider us in the future.  We demonstrated we are an open and inclusive industry with many options for future careers.  This was confirmed by the fist bumps I received as the students from Sponne School left the assembly.

The positive engagement between the students and our volunteers has been channelled back into the organisation as a result of our membership. Staff can see that we are building momentum to make working at CDK an inclusive culture with opportunities for women both for today and in the future.”

I want to leave you with this message from one of our partner schools which really encapsulates how and why we need to push this agenda forward and continue to listen and learn not only from all of our esteemed advocates but importantly from the students who will one day, we hope, be carrying forward your company’s legacy.

Statement from Ann Warner, Progress Learning Leader Y11 and PSHE Lead, Sponne School

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcBxxDjWxyM 

Thank you

 

Article written by: Danielle Humphreys, Inspiration for Innovation Network Manager

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