Local Engineer elected Chair of Scottish Region Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Matthew Laskaj has held the position of Aberdeen Area Committee Chair for the last 2 years with the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and has just been elected as Scottish Region Chair. Here he talks about the vision for the region and how IMechE are supporting members.

“It is a real privilege to have been elected as the Chair for the Scottish Region IMechE Committee. We have so many passionate people on our committees throughout the country who volunteer their time to help support and develop other engineers through all stages of their career. I am really looking forward to being able to work with more of them on a strategic level and supporting the areas and members further.

During these uncertain times, we need to continue to push ourselves and use the opportunity to create our future. It is a particularly difficult time for many and unfortunately, we are once again losing so many talented people from the industry. It has also become increasingly difficult for our young engineers to gain the vital experience of interacting directly with their peers due to the remote working conditions. Many graduate programs and internships have also been cancelled making it all the more important that there is a support mechanism for the industry and CPD opportunities.

My ambition for the Scottish region over the coming years is to engage with our members further to understand what they need and how we can help. We have made the decision that there will be no face to face events in Scotland for the remainder of the year and only online events will be run to allow for more certainty when planning.

The upside of the forced lockdown is that we are now becoming much better equipped to using virtual delivery methods. Many webinars are already being run throughout the UK and we will be providing a number of local events in the near future in the same way. You can view these for free at www.imeche.org/webinar-hub.

Please make sure that you engage with your local areas to offer assistance, provide suggestions or ask for support. Information can be found at http://nearyou.imeche.org/ for contact details and upcoming events.

I am excited by what we can achieve together in the future and am looking forward to meeting as many of you as I can as soon as we are able.

Stay safe, Matthew Laskaj.”