Wing Commander Glynis Dean led the Royal Air Force Youth and Diversity Team from its inception in 2008, until she retired in Dec 2018.Glynis was among the first to recognise that a growing gap in the availability of STEM skills nationally would impact the long-term future of the RAF. She identified that addressing the gender imbalance across technical trades offered the best route to addressing this problem and was so persuasive in her argument that the Chief of Air Staff funded the establishment of a Youth and Diversity capability at RAF Cranwell. From that humble start, Glynis grew the RAF Youth and Diversity programme, with the driving aim of encouraging more girls to select STEM subject choices at GCSE and consider a career in engineering. The programme was deliberately pitched at students of 14 years and under, as part of a long-term plan to redress the STEM skills gap; essentially investing in young people 6-8 years before they would enter the jobs market. This investment required a substantial ‘leap of faith’ in terms of resource allocation, but one the RAF made largely because of the passionate argument put forward by Glynis.An early landmark of the programme was the first STEM Residential for girls held on an RAF base. The course, for 40 girls age 14, was delivered at RAF Cosford in 2008, in partnership with Women Into Science and Engineering. The course was so successful that 3 more rapidly followed, and by 2018 the team were delivering 11 courses a year, a minimum of 3 specifically for girls, and 2 with a strong BAME focus. The RAF STEM Residential programme has now reached over 2,500 students, nearly 1,600 of which were girls, and over 2,000 achieved a British Science Association Silver Crest Award and a silver Industrial Cadet Award. Whilst tracking students engaged in the youth space is extremely problematic, we know that 18 former students are now serving in the RAF and over 100 others have contacted the team over the years to tell us that this programme provided the inspiration for their choice of an engineering career.In 2010 this residential programme won a Business in the Community (BITC) Inspiring the Workforce of the Future Award. Key to the growth of the programme were partnerships with like-minded organisations, many of which endure to this day. First among them was a joint programme with BAE to deliver a theatre-based STEM Roadshow, which in 2018 reached the milestone 1 million students engaged since 2008. Also, in 2018 the programme sponsored its 100 Arkwright Scholar and celebrated our status as having awarded more Industrial Cadet Awards than any other organisation. Other key partnerships include the Women’s Engineering Society, the Institute of Engineering and Technology, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE), the Institute of Physics (IoP), STEM Learning (formerly STEMnet) and Primary Engineer.In 2012 Glynis’ extraordinary achievements were recognised by the award of an MBE.In 2013 Glynis wrote a paper entitled, ‘Drawn from the Society it Serves’, laying out proposals to improve BAME representation in the RAF. The reaction was immediate, included a doubling of the team’s budget and additional resource. BAME specific engagements followed, mirroring those already in place for girls.The programme won the BITC Inspiring the Workforce of the Future award again in 2014 (gender) and 2015 (BAME). The European Diversity Award for inclusivity and promoting diversity in 2014 and the BITC Recruiting Diverse Talent award in 2016. Additionally, the RAF Youth STEM Programme was cited as best practice both for STEM and inclusivity by Government wide audit in 2014 and 2016. This unparalleled success led directly to the Inspire theme of the RAF 100 celebrations in 2018, where Youth STEM engagement was at the heart of the largest youth engagement programme ever delivered by the UK military and the largest Youth STEM programme ever delivered in the UK.When Glynis retired in 2018, she handed over a Youth STEM programme that is second to none. A programme conceived through her own insight and brought to life through peerless passion and tireless commitment. Reaching just 200 students in 2008, the programme reached over 2 million students in 2018, thousands of which have gone on to technical careers. Glynis retired in the certain knowledge that she had made a tremendous difference to thousands of lives and changed the perception of girls in engineering forever. The programme continues as her legacy.
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