Lisa Jacob

With professional advice from an industry mentor, Lisa can plan her career

In celebration of International Women in Engineering day, we recognise the talent and achievements of our very own Lisa Jacob, a female engineer of tomorrow, studying Civil Engineering here.
As one of the top four performing students across 29 engineering-related courses at the University of Plymouth, Lisa was selected onto the prestigious Tamar Engineering Project (TEP) which offers financial support and one-to-one industry mentoring.
On receiving valuable industry insight and advice from her mentor, Jon Benton, Regional Director of Dawnus, Lisa has already made some changes to her career plan.
“My career plan before TEP was to join the Navy as a Marine Engineer. But through meeting regularly with Jon, I learned about the types of civil engineering, the problems engineers face, and about an engineer’s career path. This gave me a much needed insight into what possibilities there are for me as a civil engineer after I have completed my degree,” said Lisa.

Jon has arranged a summer placement for Lisa with Dawnus, working as a site engineer in the Devonport Navy Dockyard.
“During my placement I will be able to put what I’ve learned into practice and it will give an insight as to whether contracting is for me…as well as spying on the Navy,” she said.

Confident as a female in a male-dominated industry

Lisa has observed how few females there are studying engineering as one of only six women on her course but notes that her experience is much the same as her fellow male students.
“I’m a little outnumbered now and again and have to put up with some daft jokes sometimes but through my experience of university and on placement I can honestly say I can’t find a reason as to why I shouldn’t be as good as or better than a male engineer.” 
“I would like to see other women take the step into engineering. It would help if existing female engineers were shown as role models such as in the current TV series on the London Crossrail Project, which shows a very capable female engineer in a senior position making important decisions.” Lisa Jacob.
Ajen Limbu Tamar Engineering Project Campaign