The Nuclear Institute North West Branch attended the CHAIN:20 Manchester event on Saturday 22nd February at Manchester Metropolitan University. The event pulled together many of the engineering institutes to inspire and network with young engineers.
The Nuclear Industry requires engineers from all backgrounds and disciplines to help drive and innovate the industry into the future. The Nuclear Institute North West Branch recognise this and aimed to make sure the engineer students and graduates attending this event saw the nuclear sector as an exciting career prospect.
The CHAIN:20 event consisted of a mixture of institute presentations combined with stalls and networking opportunities. The talks were given by enthusiastic volunteers from the likes of IpowerE, IET, IstructE, IMechE and many more. There was even a Skype call with an Engineer from NASA working on the ORION Space Craft project.
The takeaway message from the talks focused on early career support and advise, such as “don’t be scared of failure as to fail is just the first attempt at learning”.
The world is a changing place, and it’s the current generation of engineers that will need to be adaptable, especially during the rapid transition of engineering into the digital world. This is an exciting time for engineers, especially in the nuclear industry, and embracing these new challenges will be key to success. Young engineers should embrace challenges, question everything, never stop learning and always take time for self-reflection.
One of the take home messages from the speakers was the message of “Reaching beyond yourself”. This was described as anything from supporting STEM outreach, volunteering, participating within your institute and mentoring. The benefit from trying something new and thinking outside the box can often provide unexpected benefits and challenging yourself is always the first stage of growth.