9TH MAR 2026
Celebrating Our Staff for International Women's Day
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To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day theme, #GiveToGain, we spoke with some of our lecturers.
Here they’ve told us what they love about teaching young women, why they think more women should be involved in their industries, and the things they wish more women knew about working in their fields.
Kanyin Olayomi, Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering
I think at times you need to see it to believe, you need to feel representation matters. Being able to visualise yourself in a career that you perhaps hadn’t considered before is really important - to see images of yourself reflected in things you find interesting.
Throughout engineering and technology you can see some really important contributions made by women. Girls might like Lego and taking things apart and putting them back together, but where do you go from there? It’s important to see yourself reflected in what you love to do.
For me, I love seeing students have the lightbulb moment when they get something, and hearing students’ opinions about recent developments in engineering. For example, the ethics in AI, new prototypes like the Tesla Optimus Robot – hearing whether they think it’s a good invention or not.
Nicola Muller
Nicola Muller, Lecturer in Engineering
The perspective of what engineering is like can be very stuffy. You should just have a go! I was really good at maths and physics and I wasn’t sure how I could use that. I liked finding a way to apply it real life problems – and that’s what engineering is. You’ll be troubleshooting and problem solving most of the time.
There are so many different kinds of engineering that you can get involved with and it’s worth finding out all the different ones.
It’s great having the opportunity to inspire young women to come into the field and it’s a responsibility to make it happen. Studies have shown that having a greater diversity of people bring a breath of balance and better perspective of decisions. It’s a great career it’s really enjoying and satisfying.
Tonia Hamilton, Lecturer in Business
I have always enjoyed working with young people and have a real passion for modern day business. I came back to college a mature student before going to university. I love how I can link my passion of working with young people and business together.
What I love most is watching students gain confidence , I really enjoy when a student who doubted themselves realise, they can succeed. Those moments when they feel proud of themselves and are able to move onto the next stage of their life is amazing.
Teaching is a career where you can make a difference. My advice would be that building relationships with your students matter just much the lesson you teach. Students respond best when they know their teacher respects and understands them. Respect goes both ways.
Osesie Sallau, Lecturer in Computing
It’s important to be a role model. First of all, young people can’t dream to be what they can’t see. I want women in the classroom to think, “If this person could do it, I could do it. She looks like me, she sounds like me, she has similar challenges.” It’s important for young girls to see other women like that.
Computing is a fast-growing profession and it’s a job for the future. The more females we have going in that direction means it’s a step towards closing the gender pay gap. It’s a job that affects various industries; take art for example, how can you create software applications that can be used to enhance your skillset?
Several industries are going to need people with these skills as they digitise their systems more – and it’s fun!
You can still have your personal interests and use computing to digitise that and make it more accessible. Computing is about increasing accessibility to information, to products, to services. It’s important for girls to contribute their unique experiences through computing.
Holly Lyne, Associate Lecturer in Computing
I think it’s really important to have women in STEM because IT is such a typically male dominated industry, having women as well offers lots of different viewpoints. It’s about keeping it diverse and having people from different backgrounds.
Seeing a lot of men can feel discouraging – having female members teachers at college feels a bit more reassuring, and it feels really fulfilling being able to be a part of that.
There are lots of communities and groups around that support women in STEM, from competitions in schools and lots of organisations that can help support you into that. Go ahead and seek that out!
