Engineer her future: a communication campaign to encourage parents to expose their primary and lower secondary school daughters to engineering through a collaborative and interactive journey

• Main Authors: Priyadarshini, A, Au, Belinda Yi Ying, Ho, Cai Jun, Khong, Wye Yee
• Other Authors: -
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Social Sciences; Engineer her future
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174446
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The under-representation of females in engineering deprives Singapore of more creative thinking, greater innovation, and a stronger economy. While there has been an increasing number of initiatives and campaigns promoting STEM, engineering-specific efforts are lacking. Engineer Her Future is a communication campaign addressing the issue by promoting engineering as an ideal career and/or education choice to primary and lower secondary school girls, through their parents. We aimed to increase parents’ active involvement in (1) exposing their daughters to engineering; and (2) encouraging their daughters to pursue engineering in the future. Our campaign reached 855 parents with daughter(s) in primary and lower secondary school (783 parents through digital tactics and 72 parents through physical tactics), and managed to promote engineering as an ideal career and/or education choice for their daughter(s). Curated digital content allowed parents to consume information conveniently amidst their busy schedules. Furthermore, workplace visits included fun and collaborative activities, allowing participants to explore a potential future in engineering while fostering familial bonds. The use of the Knowledge-Attitude-Behaviour Model guided the development of our campaign. A post-campaign evaluation showed Engineer Her Future improved parents’ knowledge, positive attitudes towards engineering in relation to their daughter(s), and increased the number of parents who would encourage their daughter(s) to pursue engineering. Besides discussing how our novel campaign succeeded in its promotional strategies and providing diverse workplace visit experiences, the report concludes with recommendations such as narrowing the target audience and achieving sustainability through United Women Singapore.