Designed for Life

This is the official podcast of the Design and Technology Association. 'Designed for life' aims to entertain, inform and inspire, bringing the worlds of business and industry together. Design and Technology is a wide-ranging curriculum subject that, along with qualifications in other facilitating subjects, can open doors to students across an ever-increasing breadth of career. England was the first country in the world to introduce this subject to its mainstream curriculum offer in 1988. Where we led others, have followed and in various guises, it is now taught in countries around the world including India, Australia, China, USA, France and Finland. This podcast consists of a series of short, informal conversations with people from across the worlds of education, industry and design. The intention is to help to link business, industry and education, as the solutions to tomorrows problems are being educated today!

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Designed for Life

Designed for Life - In conversation with Hepzi Rattray

December 28, 2024 • Tony Ryan CEO Design & Technology Association • Season 4 • Episode 13

Imagine accidentally being put off from a career in engineering by your brilliant grandfather who, without realising, made a career in the sector sound unreachable. Hepzi Rattray is a structural engineer with the global engineering company Ramboll, but for many years, she attempted to avoid following this career trajectory.

In this penultimate podcast of 2024, we follow Hepzi's journey from school, where she turned down the offer of a top private school to attend Lady Margaret's, a church-state school in Parsons Green, West London. Some unexpected AS results forced something of a rethink and pointed her towards a somewhat unique engineering degree at Glasgow University.

Even as Hepzi progressed through the course, she was still uncertain if this was the career for her. Her mind finally made up when she undertook a placement at Ramboll, and everything finally dropped into place.

In this conversation, you will hear Hepzi's passion for her work, the strong relationship between engineering and her other passion, music, and why she is determined to use her position to inspire others into the profession.

So pull up a chair, grab a drink and a mince pie (there must be one left), and enjoy Designed for Life in conversation with Structural Engineer Hepzi Rattray.

https://www.ramboll.com/

Thanks as always go to The Edge Foundation for their unwavering support that makes this podcast possible.