Our female learners and staff were taken off their timetable and joined together in the main hall to celebrate International Women’s Day. The themes for this year were #EmbraceEquity and the United Nations theme was ‘DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality’. These themes support, encourage and are intertwined with LDE’s ethos. 
 
Considering the equity and digital theme, the morning started off with a selection of questions that could be accessed through a QR code to discuss these key themes. Questions such as ‘if you had a male twin, how would they be different?’ Through these questions, learners and staff engaged in productive discussions about important topics such as freedoms and responsibilities. Our presenters, year 13 learners Ugne and Mahia, led a discussion on statistics about women in tech, such as the fact that only 5% of CEO’s in tech industry across the UK. After some discussion, our presenters introduced one of the speakers for our event Charlene Hunter MBE- who is the CEO of Coding Black Females. 
 
Following this talk, learners engaged in a group activity sharing and discussing their impressive business ideas. Ideas included:  
“Women Air”- female aviation events  
“WE” bringing female businesses together  
“PANDA” bringing female artist together to promote their work.   
 
After the group activity, we welcomed our second speaker Roni Savage - Founder and MD at JOMAS associates. Roni was introduced to the college through the Mayors Fund for London. She is the first black female engineers to start a construction and engineering company. It was a privilege to have such a trailblazing figure talk to our aspiring female engineers and challenge them to think about their purpose. Karima Khandker Head of Resourcing, Skills and Emerging Talent and EDI from Thames Water, also took part and shared her story on the importance of job security, and representation in the workplace.  
 
Having already enjoyed such an inspiring day of talks and discussions, our IWD went to a whole other level when we welcomed a panel of LDE Alumni to return and share their success stories. Midia – Civil / Structural engineering apprentice at Morrisroe, Annam – Aircraft Maintenance engineering apprentice at British Airways, Hollie – Mechanical engineering apprentice at Thames Water, Alysse Brooks – Technical Analyst at Sky and Melissa Gentles – Psychological and Behavioural Sciences undergraduate at Cambridge shared inspirational stories and embodied the value of representation. Learners were left inspired by those only a few steps ahead of them on their vocational journey and encouraged to press forward with their own goals.  
 
We rounded up the event with inspiring words from LDE teacher Famida and asked everyone to make pledges for their future. 
  
‘LDE is such a unique and special place. We are grateful to be here with so many opportunities, hear these inspirational stories, to come together and lift each other up. I felt inspired by all the women who spoke today, they all made me believe that no matter what my dream is or my path,  I will be able to get to where I want to be if I don’t need to give up. Regardless me being of one of the 5 girls in one of my courses I will still be able to pursue that in the future,’ Zarrin year 11 student. 
 
‘It has been such a pleasure organising the event and seeing it have such a positive impact on our learners. It has really helped develop their confidence and inspired them to aim higher than they may have previously imagined for themselves,’ Sabrin, EDI lead.