Women in Wellies – Event 2018
A one day event to inspire young women to choose rural careers took place on 30th October 2018.
The event was a huge success with 170 attendees and Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) is keen to do the event again next year.
CNPA is also keen for organisations across Scotland to use the model and repeat the event.
A new webpage has been created, sharing videos of the event and providing links for rural careers information (training, volunteering, jobs, qualifications):
http://cairngorms.co.uk/caring-future/education-learning/women-in-wellies/
This document outlines how we planned the event, successes, and how Women in Wellies can be developed in the future. Please share the document with anyone who is interested in planning a Women in Wellies event.
Attendees
The venue (Boat of Garten Community Hall) had a seated capacity of 200. We invited five local High Schools (Alford, Aboyne, Kingussie, Grantown and Speyside) to bring up to 30 girls each from S4-S6. We promoted the event to students through contacts at UHI. We opened up some places for young women and women seeking a career change through Eventbrite. All places were free. CNPA covered transport costs for school groups.
Speakers
We planned speakers by thinking about the particular jobs / areas of work in the outdoor sector we wanted covered, and then consulted our steering group to find suggestions for good speakers to fill those slots. Here is an outline of the programme.
Programme
30th October 2018 Boat of Garten
9.30 Arrival and Welcome
10 Introduction by Jo O’Hara (Forestry Commission Scotland)
| 10.40 Panel chaired by Anna Fleming (Cairngorms National Park Authority) Area | Speaker | Organisation / employer |
| Stalking | Megan Rowland | Gordonbush Estate |
| Crofting / rangering / landscape management | Lynn Cassells | Lynbreck Croft |
| Farming | Joyce Campbell | Women in Agriculture Taskforce |
| Recreation / mountain guiding | Heather Morning | Mountaineering Scotland |
| Conservation / landscape | Frances Thin | Cairngorms National Park Authority |
| Forestry | Sarah Toulson | Cawdor Forestry |
Afternoon
| Farming and crofting | Lynn and Sandra, Lynbreck Croft |
| Forestry, conservation and field ecology | Becks Denny, field surveys |
| Veterinary, equine and academia | Sophie Boyd, Strathspey Veterinary Centre |
| Game keeping, stalking and fisheries | Pamela Esson, River Dee Trust |
| Guiding, recreation and rangers | Heather Morning, Mountaineering Scotland |
