YEC Mentorship Programme launch on 23 February 2024: Dr Tina Vejrum (Mentor), Gledson Tondo (Moderator), Igor Kavrakov (YEC Chair); Sébastien Maheux (YEC Vice-Chair)
Introduction
The IABSE YEC Mentorship Programme was launched on 23 February 2024 by Dr Tina Vejrum, IABSE President and Senior Technical Director at COWI, Denmark, and IABSE’s Young Engineers Committee (YEC). The event adopted a webinar format and was hosted on Zoom by IABSE. The programme started with an introduction by the YEC Committee. It was followed by a presentation by the President on the topic, “How active involvement in a professional association can support your personal career in engineering”. After the presentation, there was an interactive session where registered participants asked questions live and took the opportunity to take career guidance from the mentor, Tina Vejrum.
Meet Your Mentor Webinar
During the presentation, the Speaker, Tina, touched upon how, as a child, she always had an interest in maths and natural science and was deeply fascinated with architecture, historical buildings and structures, which eventually led to her studying structural engineering. She also mentioned how connecting people and communities with efficient infrastructure is a fundamental basis for ensuring the future prosperity and development of our societies. Respect for resources and the environment, as well as assessing the effects of climate change, are important considerations in developing sustainable solutions. Presenting personal favourite projects and using examples from her own career as an engineer, Tina's talk illustrated how structural engineering serves as the basis of a diverse career, spanning across technical specialisation, project management, line management and business development. Throughout the presentation, Tina reflected on synergies between her career in engineering consultancy and in being involved in the activities of IABSE—exchanging knowledge. She also shared anecdotes from her personal and professional life and expressed how important it is for a young engineer to grow and learn from a strong international network. Tina has been working on international infrastructure projects for 30 years, and a highlight in her career as a bridge engineer is the Stonecutters Bridge in Hong Kong, a project she worked on for 10 years from the design competition through the detailed design and concluding with three years on-site during construction. Today, she is responsible for technical development in COWI's international team of structural designers working on some of the largest and most complex infrastructure projects in the world. In parallel, Tina is active in a number of professional associations. Notably, the IABSE is present in more than 100 countries, where she is currently serving as the President.
The Young Engineers Mentorship Programme video recording is available under the Members Area for IABSE members and Young Engineers and was also sent to all registered participants.
Mentorship Programme
In IABSE Young Engineers Mentorship programme, the mentor and mentee interact, share questions, insights and experiences. The aim of this programme is to provide guidance to the young engineer, based on technical knowledge as well as hard and soft skills required in the profession, by a senior engineer. The session should facilitate a transfer of knowledge, skills, and experience which can help in the personal and professional growth of the young engineer.
The YEC Mentorship Programme Group has categorised potential topics into four distinct groups. While mentors have the option to select from these pre-organised topics, they are equally encouraged to leverage the provided framework as a foundation to determine the focus of their presentation. A schematic representation of these topics is provided in the Figure for reference.
Topics that the YE Mentorship Programme shall deal with
Have Questions?
Please visit our www.iabse.org for further activities. If you have questions regarding the IABSE YEC’s Mentorship Programme, want to attend or help organising the next events, or want to volunteer as a mentor, then please write to YEC at [email protected]. We encourage National Groups to encourage their Young Engineers to register and participate in future Mentorship Programs and reach out to universities to spread the word.
