## **Annual Report 2024**
## **Overview of WEST**
There is a clear and longstanding under-representation of girls and women in engineering, science and technology subjects and careers. There is a greater under-representation of girls and women in non-traditional trades. WEST have run a bursary scheme for more than 10 years which aims to offer a little support and encouragement to girls and women who face financial hardship or other challenges near the start of their study or career. Funding for our bursaries comes from donations or special fundraising events. (Bursaries are available in spring for girls and women in Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire).
Girls do not easily aspire to engineering subjects and non-traditional trades, so over the last 10 years we have developed resources that are trusted and creative. We deliver outreach to primary and secondary schools in our region, with the help of our female role models. Our funding for this work usually comes from grant applications but we are also commissioned based on our track record.
In 2024 we were commissioned by UKAN (UK Acoustics Network) to develop resources to promote Acoustic Careers in schools – with a focus on raising awareness of acoustics careers in schools at Primary and Secondary Schools.
_Our Objectives: to introduce female role models in acoustics / sound related science and engineering careers to primary and secondary schools – to raise awareness of careers and of women working in related areas of acoustics – science / engineering / design and media; in primary to use sound in a simple and fun activity / activities linked to curriculum topics and to develop activities linked to careers awareness; to evaluate and get feedback._
We proposed two new outreach schemes as a pilot, one in 6 primary schools and the other in 6 secondary schools in Sheffield. The schemes were adapted from previously well-received WEST
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STEM outreach projects but now focused on a new area - sound and acoustics careers resources and careers information.
We set up the scheme by recruiting female role models working in sound and acoustic careers (female only to counter a male dominated perspective of sound engineering and other acoustics careers that are physics-based). Our aim was to develop the view in all pupils that women and men can follow these careers. We also wanted to improve inclusivity by drawing on schools across Sheffield to diversify the background and cultures of groups who are under-represented in STEM including Sound and Acoustics.
The project was very successful and additional funding to share the knowledge we gained was promised for the following year.
## **Some Key points**
## **Primary**
- Careers events are not an everyday event in primary schools. This can make it harder to reach – schools are very busy and such events may be seen as ‘a nice thing to do’ but lack the time and space. WEST have a good record of delivering school events across Sheffield and this has helped us access primary schools.
- Sourcing appropriate resources that can engage pupils from a wide background and a young age is important. Too often we found activities were not inclusive or age appropriate and science-based activities were usually designed for already academic students. We needed simple, fun but ‘subject related’ activities with easy to obtain materials that could appeal to all in the group.
- Existing good acoustics / sound UK careers online video resources were hard to find. The majority seem to be aimed at a much higher age group – secondary or graduate - rather than our primary age Y5/Y6 (9-11). Some resources were dated or too complex. Those resources with women working in sound / acoustics were rare. Note: we did draw on http://salfordacoustics.co.uk/careers which was the most helpful.
- Sourcing female role models was initially difficult, mainly because of the specific requirement of sound / acoustics as part of the career. However, with support from UKAN, and thinking laterally and using contacts together with lots of persistence we found enough, and all were ‘fantastic’. The pupils really enjoyed hearing from the role models and there were some great questions from the pupils.
- There remains a need to widen recruitment of female role models in building acoustic design or more generally in acoustic materials design.
- The feedback from pupils, teachers and role models was very positive across all the schools we visited and all provided helpful feedback, advice and general comments.
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## **Secondary**
- Careers is part of the secondary curriculum but single specific events like we were doing with UKAN took a lot of persuasion. Secondary Schools are very busy places, and we had to use our contacts and our own knowledge of careers work to promote the events.
- We adapted our events to fit in with the school’s needs so that we were able to join in with planned and already organized careers events where possible.
- The importance of the role models in our events cannot be overstated. The saying ‘see it to be it’ was constantly referred to in feedback. The human stories really make a difference.
- It is important to have a teacher there – not necessarily for keeping order but for other assistance e.g. helping to get the shy students to ask questions.
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## **WEST Bursaries**
We have again raised sufficient funds to provide small bursaries in support of women working and studying in non-traditional subjects and careers. We awarded 17 college / trade bursaries (across Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire) and 5 Bursaries to Sheffield Hallam Engineering students (each student given £150) in 2024.
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We would like to thank all our funders for helping WEST in our aims to advance the education and careers of women and girls in non-traditional subjects.
Finally, in 2024 we welcomed a new member to WEST: Alice Arnold, a Computer Studies Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University joined us as a volunteer and hopefully to become a future Trustee.
## **Agreed by WEST Trustees**
Dr Pat Morton Chair of Trustees Dr Ros Wollen Trustee Saj Parveen Trustee Anna Childs Trustee Alice Arnold New Volunteer (Trainee Trustee)
Annual Report 2024 for Charity Commission Submission October 2024
www.westskills.org.uk
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## **Charity Name No (if any) WEST 1152219 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period** Period start date Period end date **To from** 1.1.2024 31.12.2024 ~~rr _~~ **Section A Receipts and payments**
|||**Unrestricted**
**funds**||**Restricted**
**funds**|**Restricted**||**Endowment**
**funds**|**Endowment**
**funds**||**Total funds**||**Last year**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**to the nearest**
**£**|**to the nearest**|**to the nearest £**|**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**|**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**|
||**A1 Receipts**||||||||||||
||GRANTS|**6,345**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**6,345**||**10,000**|
||INTEREST ON DEPOSIT ACCOUNT|**232**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**232**||**287**|
||FUNDRAISING / DONATIONS|**10,308**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**10,308**||**271**|
|||||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**|
|||**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**16,885**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**16,885**||**10,558**|
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Total receipts_**
**16,885**
**-**
**-**
**16,885**
**10,558**
~~——————~~|||||||||||||
||**A3 Payments**||||||||||||
||INSURANCE|**325**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**325**||**305**|
||BURSARIES|**3,300**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**3,300**||**2,250**|
||INTERNET AND WEBSITE|**554**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**554**||**397**|
||CATERING|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**||**60**|
||PRINTING / PHOTO|**925**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**925**||**133**|
||CONSULTANTS OUTREACH|**5,930**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**5,930**||**2,561**|
||CONSULTANTS FILM|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**||**1,002**|
||TRAVEL & EXPENSES|**24**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**24**||**160**|
|||**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**|
_**Sub total**_ **[ 11,058 ] - - 11,058 6,868**
**A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) - - - - - - - -** _**Sub total**_ **[ - ] - - - -** ~~—~~ _**Total payments**_ ~~——=—~~ **11,058 - - 11,058 6,868** _**Net of receipts/(payments)**_ **5,827 - - 5,827 3,690 A5 Transfers between funds - - - - - A6 Cash funds last year end - - - - -** _**Cash funds this year end**_ ~~SS~~ **5,827 -** ~~SS~~ **- 5,827** ~~=~~ **3,690**
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
29/09/2025
1
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**|R Wollen
Signature
P Morton
**Details**
**Details**
Current Account
Savings Account
**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
**Details**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**15,986**
**-**
**9,214**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**25,200**
**-**
Agreement Error
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
P Morton
R Wollen|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
||P Morton|P Morton||
||R Wollen|R Wollen||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
29/09/2025
2