The British Dam Society (BDS) is an associated society of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). The BDS has a Young Professionals (YP) section for members who are 35 years old and under, which include both those working in industry and students. At this time there are around 150 YP members of the BDS.
The BDS YP section is run by the Young Professionals (YP) Committee. This is made up of the Chair, Events Champion, Mentoring Champion and Social Media Champion. The BDS Young Professionals Committee aims to provide opportunities for YPs to develop their knowledge and expand their network.
There are several initiatives for YPs, which include:
- Monthly Continuing Professional Development (CPD) webinars,
- Supervising Engineers mentoring scheme,
- BDS YP paper competition and,
- YP Forum.
The monthly CPD webinars cover a variety of topics from the dams and reservoirs industry with speakers who are more experienced professionals as well as their fellow young professionals. These sessions are recorded for all BDS members to watch afterwards.
It has been identified within the industry that more Reservoir Supervising Engineers are required in the UK to ensure adequate professional support for reservoir owners. The BDS has established a mentoring scheme to help YPs become Supervising Engineers. This mentoring scheme is run by the YP Committee and it has helped members develop and prepare to apply for the Supervising Engineer Panel by having a mentor and the opportunity to attend site visits.
There is an annual BDS YP Young Professionals paper competition which gives an opportunity for YP members to write a technical paper on an area of their work. Shortlisted authors are given the opportunity to present and answer questions from reservoir engineers at the award ceremony. The shortlisted papers are also published in the BDS Dams and Reservoirs Journal.
Young Professionals Forum
On 22nd April 2024, the BDS had its 1st Young Professionals Forum at the ICE in London. This was an event which provided the opportunity for BDS young professionals to increase their network and hear about the following topics:
- Reservoir Incidents, with one speaker being past ICOLD President Michael Rogers
- The route to becoming a Supervising Engineer
- Spillway Design
- Sustainability
There was also an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion session.
This was a successful event with around 50 BDS young professionals attending. The BDS will continue to organise this event.
The current and previous BDS YP Committees have worked to establish links with the ICOLD Young Professionals Forum (ICOLD YPF). Recently, the ICOLD YPF Chair was the June 2024 monthly CPD speaker and the BDS YP Committee worked with the ICOLD YPF to host a webinar in July 2024 for their members, which is available on the ICOLD YPF youtube channel.
The role of YP groups and need for knowledgeable professionals will continue to grow. This is important due to the requirement for more engineers and other professionals to maintain existing assets, and also to support the future programme of major UK reservoir construction which will take place over the coming years.
The support of experienced and senior professionals is invaluable to YPs and international collaboration provides many opportunities for knowledge sharing and development.
For further information on the British Dam Society Young Professionals Committee, please contact Rachael Lavery at youngprofessionals@britishdams.org
