Youth and Early Career Special Interest Group

Royal Meteorological Society Student and Early Careers Conference — *Youth and Early Careers Conference 2023*

Our Purpose

The Special Interest Group (SIG) aims to sustain, encourage, and progress the Society's engagement with and provisions for youth and early careers, as well as championing them in the Society's activities. Our focus spans Society content and activities relevant to youth (16-24 years old) and early careers (up to 10 years since starting an undergraduate degree or equivalent).

Our aims are to:

Develop content and activities to address the needs of youth and early careers working in weather and climate
Work with the Society committees to provide strategic direction and feedback on activities
Ensure that the needs of the youth and early careers are served well.

You can read more about our purpose and plans in the July 2023 Weather article: ‘Spotlight on the Youth and Early Career Special Interest Group’.

Who Are We?

Members of this SIG span a range of career stages, including representation of early careers from industry and academia to undergraduates to school-aged (youth) members. At present, the group is co-chaired by Hannah Mallinson, RMetS Science Engagement Manager, and Regan Mudhar, RMetS Science Engagement Fellow for Youth and Early Careers.

What Have We Done?

In 2023, we rebranded our Early Career & Student Conference to ensure we are more inclusive of those who are not in education. Similarly, we took feedback from academia and industry to set a new Society-wide definition of what it means to be “early career”. This enables the Society to better communicate with and support a specific section of members in all activities and initiatives going forward. We also reinvigorated our Student Ambassador scheme, launching a UK-wide recruitment drive in August.

What Are We Doing?

As of Autumn 2023, we are in the process of creating training videos on communicating science and research on social media and to traditional media. We are also starting to plan the Summer 2024 Early Career & Student Conference.

What Will We Do?

We are exploring opportunities to run a hackathon and/or careers event in 2024, and are also interested in setting up a UK network for people of colour in meteorology or related fields. If you would like to collaborate on any of these, please email fellowship@rmets.org. Alternatively, if you would just like to keep up to date with what this SIG is up to, please email youthandearlycareers@rmets.org.