Added: 14th August 2023 by Leonardo
Kristy Ireland, a Graduate Systems Engineer at Leonardo, is one of the young people responsible for organising today’s event raising awareness and celebrating neurodiversity, as part of her role as Events Lead for the ADS New Professionals Forum (NPF). ADS is the trade association for the UK aerospace, defence and security sector.
Today’s event at BAE Systems' ASK Facility in Samlesbury aims to bring together related working groups, employee resource groups and new professionals to address neurodiversity across the sector.
Kristy, who works on the Global Combat Air Programme at Leonardo, explains how the event came about. “Looking back at all the outputs from our annual conference in November 2022, one of them was a desire from our members to have more events and opportunities for new professionals to discuss inclusion and diversity topics! We therefore made one of the NPF’s key objectives this year to identify and diversify our community’s reach, representation and knowledge across areas of untapped potential.
“With this first such event, we wanted to extend the Forum’s reach into neurodiversity, promote and share our members’ experiences, highlight ways we can create neurodiverse-friendly work environments and ultimately create a space where these conversations could happen,” she says.
“Understanding the experiences and skills of neurodivergent people and highlighting ways in which new professional communities can be allies, are all key aims of this event.”
Today’s event features talks covering a broad range of topics and a breakout session to discuss best practice for employers. There will also be a panel session where attendees can pose questions to a specialist panel of inclusion and diversity managers, employee resource group representatives and neurodivergent individuals.
In addition to planning the neurodiversity event, Kristy is also responsible for organising the NPF’s annual conference in 2024.
NPF was formed to develop and retain early careers professionals and those new to ADS’s sectors, and provide them with a cross-sector network to support skills development, industry engagement and career advancement. The group currently has over 250 members from more than 50 organisations, with the committee consisting of representatives from 12 companies.
