Engineers are having a meaningful impact across communities in Ireland through working in the public sector. Today we hear from three professionals with extensive experience working within the public sector about the rewarding projects they have worked on and the career paths they have taken. Our guests are Head of the National Building Control & Market Surveillance Office in Dublin and a fellow with Engineers Ireland Mairéad Phelan, Executive Engineer with Limerick City and County Council Fergal Timlin and Senior Executive Engineer with Louth County Council Claire Hughes. THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT01:09 Public sector and private sector differences02:15 Job fulfilment in public sector work 04:40 Time scales in public sector work 06:46 Working with members of the public 10:41 Advice for those looking to move into the public sector 12:06 Taking a step back from the business calculations 16:27 The variation of work in the public sector 19:02 Career progression in the public sector 26:58 Changing the perception of engineering gender stereotypes at school level GUEST DETAILSClaire Hughes has a degree in Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering from Trinity College Dublin in 2006, an MSc Eng in Fire Safety Engineering from University of Ulster in 2013 and Postgraduate Dip in Road & Transport Engineering (inaugural year of the course) from IT Sligo in 2017. Claire is over 17 years working in Local Authorities (Monaghan, Offaly, Meath and now Louth County Councils) across a number of Departments such as Housing Capital, Road Design, Operations, Water & Wastewater services and Environmental services. She is currently working in Louth County Council as a Senior Executive Engineer in Waste Management & Environment Department.Website: https://www.louthcoco.ie/en/ Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-hughes-3215961b7 Mairéad Phelan is Head of the National Building Control and Market Surveillance Office. A Chartered Engineer and Fellow of Engineers Ireland she was a Programme Manager with the Local Government Management Agency on national projects. Prior to this, she was Fingal County Council’s head of the Built Environment Inspectorate Division; preceded by Senior Engineer Road Safety, Transportation and Bridges Division. She spent 10 years as Municipal Town Engineer with Carlow County Council while also performing the role of Conservation Officer. Her career commenced with Consulting Engineering work on Major Water & Drainage Schemes. Mairéad is an Associate Lecturer with SETU Carlow and is passionate about promoting the construction of safe and healthy buildings and the sustainable reuse of our existing building stock. She was awarded the Civil Service Excellence and Innovation award in 2015.She holds an MBA, a Diploma in Law, and a PG. Cert. in Governance, a PGDip in Highway & Geotechnical Engineering, a PGDip in Project Management, and a Cert in GDPR.Website: https://nbco.localgov.ie/ Social Media: https://ie.linkedin.com/in/mair%C3%A9ad-phelan-a9b42a20 Fergal has 13 years’ experience in civil/environmental engineering. He has amassed a large amount of experience in a wide range of Civil Engineering disciplines, such as the construction of roads and drainage infrastructure.Fergal is currently a member of the Thomond Region Committee and the Civil Division Committee of Engineers Ireland. He is also the planning lead for the Construction Sector Circular Economy Roadmap Report .Website: https://www.limerick.ie/council Social Media: www.linkedin.com/in/fergal-d-timlin-88ab7b39   MORE INFORMATIONLooking for ways to explore or advance a career in the field of engineering? Visit Engineers Ireland to learn more about the many programs and resources on offer. https://www.engineersireland.ie/  Engineers Journal AMPLIFIED is produced by DustPod.io for Engineers Ireland.QUOTESThe pressure is on you in the public sector, you're answerable to everybody in the general public and everything that you do in your work is under scrutiny. - Claire Hughes I was able to improve the towns and the small villages that were in my area, and I can see where I improved the signage, the parks, the town, and putting in something simple like a basketball arena. I found it very, very rewarding working in local authorities. - Mairead Phelan A lot of people have mixed views or mixed opinions about what working in a local authority is. It is such a fantastic and varied career. - Claire Hughes There's times where I do need to step back from projects and stop looking at the big calculations and just remember that these small improvements have a dramatic change to people and are greatly welcomed. - Fergal TimlimThere is a very clear progressions layout  in place in local authorities. - Claire Hughes I see myself as an engineer first and foremost, a problem solver and a designer. That's all I ever wanted to be, even as a child, but nobody ever told me that it was a totally male orientated profession  - Mairead Phelan The simplest definition of an engineer is that we're just problem solvers. We need to explain that to the primary school students, and not that there's these gender assigned roles or stereotypes associated with engineering. We have to break them to actually get young women into engineering. - Fergal Timlin Every child loves a brick to play with, every child loves Lego. I've never met a child that doesn't love the box that the stuff comes in. So why are we not bringing that along through the schools and teaching? - Mairead Phelan KEYWORDS#localauthorities #engineering #publicsector #housing #construction

Ver todos los episodios