'WHAT IS SURVEYING?' INSPIRED SCHOOL OUTREACH SESSION IN SCOTLAND

Despite typical Scottish rain, the students eagerly measured the site for their project, applying essential surveying principles like access, visibility, risk assessment, boundaries, utilities and local sensitivities - all crucial elements in successful engineering projects.

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Starting with limited knowledge of surveying, one student reflected, ‘Two hours ago, I didn’t know what a surveyor was. I thought they just dealt with statistics and stuff…’

This session proved transformative, revealing the exciting and varied opportunities within the surveying world.

Hearing from session leaders

Gary Kelly, Regional Manager at Leica Geosystems and session leader, reflected on the unique nature of this outreach:

Unlike sessions with industry entrants or trainees, this was with young people new to surveying, so we adapted the equipment and approach to suit them. From zero experience, they created a topographic survey base using GNSS in a few hours. Their teamwork and engagement were outstanding.

Gary highlighted the students’ fascination with the range of surveying roles and the digital technologies demonstrated, especially laser scanning. Gary stressed that early engagement like this is crucial to tackle the profession’s skills gap and improve awareness of surveying careers. He also shared a memorable moment when a student connected surveying technology to everyday life, explaining how GNSS mapping allows services like food delivery even to a remote field, illustrating surveying’s real-world impact.

Hear more from Gary...

Your viewpoint as a session leader + how many related sessions you’ve been part of...

Gary: When I was asked to assist, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, I've done lots of sessions before with surveying but it tends to be with people either already in the industry or training to enter the industry. This was a slightly different session from those I've done before as for this project we were working with a group of young people who really have very little knowledge or background in survey so we had to tailor the equipment we were going to use and processes to suit.  That being said the students were really engaging and took ownership of their project from pre site surveys to selecting the site they aim to move forward with on the project. 

Because we turned up on the day with minimal pre prep work and from meeting the students that morning, to go from never undertaking a survey to creating a base outline of a topographic survey using GNSS within a few hours was really positive.  There's obviously a long way to go to develop into surveyors but it was encouraging to see how many of the group listened, discussed and guided each other through the morning.

What takeaways you had from the students, what did you find piqued their interest the most?

Gary: It was really interesting to find out what they actually thought a 'surveyor' was and once we started getting into the conversation how many 'types' of surveyors there are, even within geospatial surveying.  They each had a different idea of what a surveyor involves and once we got going it was clear to see how everyone had a different skill set and levels of interest but it was great to see so many students engaging with the project. 

Digital skills are always the main focus when speaking to the next generation of surveyors especially once you show laser scanners and scan data in the field as you can see a connection with the students and it works as a bit of a wow factor, however the big win for me was how well they communicated with each other as a group both in the capture process and decision making to make the project a success.       

Words of wisdom for inspired readers...

Gary: With the main difficulty our profession faces being the skills gap and difficulties in recruiting and training future surveyors, this type of early intervention is going to be really important in attracting talent.  There are so many students at this level that just aren't aware that this is a viable career path for them and we're missing a trick as an industry with limited early engagement.  There is no silver bullet when it comes down to awareness and there are also factors which limit our ability to engage at this level.   It has to be said that without programmes like the DEC and STEM projects or work experience it is difficult to interact with the next generation on why surveying can be such a rewarding and enjoyable career path.  However my main takeaway (pun intended) from our morning surveying took the whole topic full circle when one of students demonstrated you no longer need to stop for lunch these days when you can order a McDonalds to anywhere, even a field and the rider can deliver. 

How? Accurate mapping, a GNSS position and good communication.