David and Mark are both pranksters and delight in playing tricks on their fellow students. When they were just kids, it seemed cute, but has been proving more and more a problem as they become teenagers. Mark is thinking of dropping David's friendship as every time they get together they seem to fall back into the same pattern. Would this solve the problem? Or would he just continue with someone else's help if David was no longer in the picture? Performance is a discipline and change is a process. Clearly Mark is ready to make some changes and will commit time and attention to that effort. But what about the product? What is there to be accomplished? We do what we have learned. This continues of itself until there is a positive effort addressing change. People have a personal inertia that must be interrupted if there is to be change. In the performance discipline there must be a definition of a successful outcome before the change process can even begin. Does Mark have to turn away from David? The performance answer is to note the value to be gained and the cost of gaining it and the rest is locked away where it is out of sight and no longer of concern. If losing David's friendship will be required it is just another cost. But the ends never justify the means. Mark's process of change belongs to Mark. What he chooses as value is also valued because he values it. The rest goes into the box. Perhaps David also wants to see changes. To interrupt the inertia of his irritating behavior is that an option for Mark? We all deal with unknowns daily. There is no way to ultimately assure that what we do is the best of all directions. We apply the knowledge we have and apply the experience we have had with it and we do what seems best at the time. Our simple working tool is the black box and it is applied to deal with many of the unknowns. Those that deal with process can be locked away out of sight and out of mind. They are not important. When Mark decides what to do to gain the value result he will not be basing it on process. He will consider the results and what must be committed to gain the results. And so Mark decides what he wants to be as behavior, what he will value and how he will accomplish this. That is performance thinking. It is not something you or I can approve or judge for it is unique to Mark. We are outsiders not those who will define value for Mark to gain and not those who will value what he does accomplish. It is not our time and effort that Mark is committing but his own. It is a truth of human behavior that we will continue to do what we have learned to do and we will continue to do these things long after we may have decided not to do them anymore. This is part of being human. We do not unlearn what we have learned. Our effective change comes with replacing the unwanted behavior with something else and this is where performance focus has value. If we accomplish what we value, if we get the value result then we learn to favor what has worked for us. This is not simply meeting some goal but attaining a valuable result. Being effective is habit forming. Using performance thinking can also be habit forming. The difference that comes with performance thinking is that the focus is on your efforts producing what you value. Not only is the support for attaining results a good technique for accomplishment, it is also a way to harness your human inertia so that it becomes easier for you to keep the focus in later situations. So what about Mark? What about David? We know the change in Mark has to start with Mark. The rest is what are outsiders to the decision to commit his time and effort to any change. For our purpose, let us assume that Mark has some good experience with intentionally listening to people, giving them feedback on what they said so they know he was paying attention. Where being a trickster now gets him unpleasant results, this has worked. And instead of seeking out passives for pranks, he makes the effort to really listen to what the person nearest him is saying. He listens with the intent to let them know that he has heard them, receiving what they said, and will do what he can to let them see it. His urge to continue as a trickster will still be there, but he will do something rewarding instead. The trickster behavior will remain, but become less of a problem, and the listening behavior will become easier because it works for him. Keeping the performance discipline is a behavior that can be learned, something with a valued result.


Welcome back to our MedSmarter question of the week where we're taking a smarter approach to preparing future physicians. Before we get started, if you'll take just a quick minute and click that like button and also subscribe and turn the bell on so that you'll be notified when we post new videos. Let's get right to that question. As always, we start with the last sentence of the vignette and then work our way back. Which of the following is the site of pathology in this patient? A 30 year old man develops polyurea. His nephrologist monitors him closely on a water deprivation test and he continues to have increased urine output. A diagnosis of diabetes and sypetis is made. The nephrologist orders an anti-diuretic hormone level and determines that it is inappropriately elevated, which of the following is the site of the pathology in this patient. So this is a pretty straightforward question. They give you all the information you need to know and they want to know what patient has diabetes and sypetis with an elevated ADH level. Where are they having a pathology occur? So take a second, look at these answer choices, come up with your answer and write it in the comment box below. So let's look at this real quick. Anti-diuretic hormone level is elevated. So a patient is peeing a lot of urine and we have anti-diuretic hormone in the body that's elevated but they continue to pee. What does that tell you? That tells me that the anti-diuretic hormone is not working on its target. The target of anti-diuretic hormone is the kidney. So we have a problem somewhere in the kidney. So that's going to be able to come in and mark out some of these answer choices. So obviously the pituitary function is up in the brain, that's not going to be anything here. Same with the adenohypothesis and then also D1 receptors, those are all in the central nervous system as well. So now we're down to the V1 and V2 receptors. V1, vasopressin 1 receptors are mostly going to be affecting the smooth muscle issues. So not so much in the ADH role alongside of diabetes and sypetus. So that's not going to be my choice. That leaves me with V2 is my only answer. So E, V2 is my final answer. And E is the correct answer. As we said, this is nephrogenic diabetes and sypetus. Because of this elevated anti-diuretic hormone level. If that was lower, then we'd be talking more central diabetes and sypetus and our answer choice would change. But because it's nephrogenic diabetes and sypetus, this is a problem with anti-diuretic hormone receptors in the actual kidneys themselves, not in the brain or in the central nervous system. So the only receptor in the kidney that has to do with diabetes and sypetus with an elevated anti-diuretic hormone level has to be E, the V2 receptors. If you found this material helpful for your studying, please like and consider subscribing to the channel. Also, share this video so that more people can benefit from it like you have.


Then what can be function? Yes, it is differentiable at x equal to x. Same would work for difference as well. So I am writing it in one go. Can I say the same for product? Product will also be differentiable at x equal to x. Now these properties actually will make our life very simple in comparatively clear questions because we don't have to do those differentiation for example in the previous questions. We don't have to sit and do the differentiation in order to know that my left hand derivative and my right hand derivative are equal or not. And same would work even for quotient of these two functions provided your G of A is not 0. Is that right? This property you will find in almost every book. But what they don't discuss are the properties which are going to come next when a function is differentiable at A and another is not a differentiable at A then what happens? Let's discuss that. Does this need any debate or a discussion? I don't think so. It's very obvious. G of x is not differentiable at x equal to A. Then what can you comment about the sum of f of x and g of x? Will it be differentiable or will it be never differentiable at x equal to A? Or I can't say it won't be differentiable at x. I'm just saying it will definitely not be differentiable at x equal to A. Not necessarily. Then give me an example where a differentiable and a non-differentiable gets you differentiable. So what we just need is a question like x plus 1 into what A I am. What's the difference between x plus 1 and x plus 1? It's a plus not multiplication. So it's not differentiable. Sir, there is a case for x. For example, if there is a king and there is a non-differentiable, there has to be a king somewhere. No, no, no. You take back yours. You retract your message. I will try to not talk to you. It is not differentiable. What is the case for x equal to 0? x equal to 0. Okay, it's very obvious because, correct? Yes, sir. Answer the hint. It is differentiable at 0. So here, we cannot say anything. So for putting a differentiable product of a differentiable and a non-differentiable at that very point x equal to A. Where a differentiable function at x equal to A multiplies to a non-differentiable function at x equal to A to produce a non-differentiable function at x equal to A. I will preach it to you. I will bring a constant in hand. A previous function at x equal to A. Sir, where did it come from? Tell me an example of a function which is differentiable at x equal to A. Another function which is not differentiable at x equal to A. And when you multiply it, you get a non-differentiable at x equal to A. So mod x minus 2 into sin x. Mod x minus 2 into sin x, which point will be? 2. At 2. Can you please check in the graph? It has to be correct. He said mod x minus 2 into sin x. So sin x is a differentiable at 2. Mod x minus 2 is not differentiable at x equal to 2. And when you multiply it, you will get a... I have tried to see whether that claim is correct or not. Sex, let's say. We know it's differentiable at pi. No, it's not differentiable at pi. Which is differentiable at pi. Take it on its way, sir. Is this claim correct? If these two functions are multiplied, this was differentiable. Is this correct? Is it differentiable at pi by 2? I multiplied these two. Are you getting this point? In fact, we have a... You know, the whole is because of the fact that the functions making that sin x did not exist. Are you getting it? And this is the fundamental which were used to make this function. They just take it on its face value. Okay, sin x. Continuous everywhere. Fringe everywhere. Done. But the moment... No, no, no. Gentle, sir. The moment I say it's in two tan x, because pi by 2 is not in the domain of tan x, it will also be not in the domain of sin x. And if some point is not in the domain, how can you talk about differentiability there because it will be discontinuous there. And hence it will not be differentiable there. So sir, this statement, is it correct? No. Be careful of these small, small, conceptual testings that can be asked to you. Six. Or seven. Six. What's the number of two times the value of one is the mean? Yes. But tan doesn't have. What do you mean by that? What do you mean by that? The domain of the resultant function would be an overlap of the domain of the two functions making it. Not only in case of multiplication, but also in the case of sum and also in the case of division. Individually extrude extra points because you do not allow your denominator to become zero. Remember in the domain chapter last year, I talked about this concept. If I want to find domain of f of x by g of x, domain of f of x by g of x would be nothing but, let's say the domain of this is d1, domain of this is d2. What is the d1 intersection d2 excluding those points where g of x is becoming zero? This I did last year with you. So not only it is becoming zero. Because if you see at g of x, there is no harm in it becoming zero. So those points will also come in its own way. But overall in this scenario, those points should not be entertaining. Makes sense. How do you write this complete thing in one book? It's on your page. I don't know. Not differentiable x equal to a and g of x is also not differentiable at x equal to u. What can we comment on the sum of these two functions? What does that matter? Not differentiable. Everybody? One voice? Not differentiable. I have a scenario for you. We know it's not differentiable. All of you please. I have seen some t-shirts in that. It looks like this. Also there are scratches and all that. So do you see? There is a stress on the one zero. So it is not differentiable there. Let me take another function. Now you are saying can't say. When you add it, please quote this. You might be like it. That is differentiable. And this function is like c equal to zero. So do you take back your claim that what's the model of the story? Can't say. Can't say. Now why I am giving you all these cases is because many a time such questions come and people do non-differentiable functions, they are always added to give you non-differentiable functions. No. Cannot say. It depends upon the question itself. And the very same function if you add them, psi mod x plus mod x if you do, you see that it is non-differentiable at zero. Not the graph, see there is a sharp corner. Right? What about from bottom like this will come? What about their multiplication? What about their product? No way. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. All these if you have an installed desktop set on your phones. Facebook app you will download like this. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Can't say. Huh? Psi mod x into mod x. Correct. Oh wow. Other example would be this. I always think of this example. Let's say I have one when x is greater than or equal to zero. Minus my x is less than zero. Correct. Clearly if I choose another function, minus two when x is greater than zero. This is also discontinuous at zero. What happens when that's minus two? Five. That's plus two. Plus two is always continuous in the future. Okay. And there is no domain issue also. Please take the domain issue. It should not be like it should be the all up and down. Is it right? So cannot say and same would be also applicable if you are taking the quotient of two functions. We cannot say anything. So one question I have to ask. Is the derivative of a continuous function always continuous? Let's say a function. Continuous at x equal to eight. With the derivative. No. Is the derivative. What? Not necessarily. Not necessarily. So please remember all these things. So now we take questions.


Hello, I'm waiting for the chatter to die down. There we go. Hi, everybody. Welcome to our farewell for our deputy commanding general for the Roka Army. We are going to be saying a very heartfelt goodbye. See you later to our DCGR. And he will have some comments. And we will present him with a gift. And everyone will have a chance to come by in farewell and shake his hand and tell him how awesome he is and how much you'll miss him. So with that said, sir, your floor. First off, thank you, everybody, for coming today. You know, in a typical Roka Army fashion, we find out, and we execute quick on transitions. And drill officers are even more rapid, just like in the US Army, but then we would like to send some cases. But for us, we got a whole week notice, not even a week notice, but a pretty quick notice on Joe Kim's departure. Not going too far away, by the way. We know where he's going to work next. And he is uniquely going to be very involved in divisible exercises, because he's going to be a great partner for us as the chief of fires at the GOC headquarters. And so the good thing is Joe Kim is going to the GO Chief of Fire Directorate, going to work day to day with Colonel Anderson when he plugs into the US Fire Directorate in his conference room. In his conference room. This close.  And so he's not going too far away from an exercise perspective. We're still going to have a lot of interaction with him. He and I, just two weeks ago, were pondering the power of having him stay up for a second year at some point in the next six months. There will be a new division commander here that would be a good bridging strategy for the rock army to be able to share best practices, ideas, and understanding. But that is not going to be the case. However, his replacement for General Kim, as well, is coming to us from CGFB, CFC Chief of Fires. And so comes in with a wealth and deep understanding of the OPLAN, as well. And so we're going to have a person that's already worked on a combined staff. And he's probably done so multiple times. But he's going to come down and come on to the better side of the airfield and integrate into the division next Monday, is when he'll show up. And so it's been a quick year. And we've done a lot in your tenure in the division. So we fought through, we fought to train at the combined joint fire coordination exercise, where you were instrumental in integrating and gaining participation from rock cannon battalions and got into a point where they were comfortable fighting in a fairly dynamic environment during our CJ SCF. So that was very significant. And I can't thank you enough for all of your hard work integrating, synchronizing, and coordinating to get those rock army units, along with the entire rock staff, delivering that capability into that exercise. That was pretty interesting. In addition, from a tech effects perspective, a partnership with our C2 team bringing in tech effects in the form of an electronic warfare live into that same training environment. Along the way, helping us understand better the interoperability challenges that exist at the tactical level between our two armies was instrumental in initially setting the stage for us to be able to present that last week at the C5-5 ISRT side. I think from the first time to include our own CFC and USFK level leaders, finally understood the challenges that exist at the tactical level from an interoperability perspective in terms of how we really need to communicate with each other. More importantly, what we need to do to be better in the future with either policy changes or some key fieldings of policy changes are probably a combination of both. So I can't thank you enough as well, Joe, again, for doing that for the team. And then along the way, all the mentorship you provided not only all the rock army staff but also our own to make sure we truly were a combined team. We're sad to see you go, but we know you're not going too far away and we're lucky for that. And so it's our honor to today to come in and properly say goodbye from the combined division in a couple of ways here. However, what you need to know about rock and any foreign general officer is it requires a very high level of approval. So is that able to react quick enough under award to have it here today because it requires it to go to the sector? The Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, will have to approve your award. It will come to you. We know where you were. It will bring it to you at some point in the near future or in the future more precisely. But so that's gone. But I'll put it further in the middle. I'm going to turn it back over to you. Come on up here with me. And one of my favorite guests, let's go over here. As you've all figured out by now, one of my favorite guests is a Tomahawk. It's the primary tool of a warrior. And we are certainly in the warrior division. So this is ceremonial. However, in a pinch can be a weapon. I don't know if I won't tell you why. There's enough of an attachment point to this staff. If you need to, you can defend yourself with great honor. So on behalf of the entire warrior division, I present your very own Warrior 6 for Warrior Tomahawk. Thank you, Jim.  It seems like yesterday the patching ceremony was held. The time price like an arrow. Today, I'm going to leave here the one and only combined division in the world. And my next assignment is a GOC chief of fires. As a Warrior 6 for, I have put an effort for combined combat readiness, combined training, and development of interoperability over the past year. Along with this, thank you to endeavor for Warrior 6 division staffs, commanders, and command sergeant major, server subordinates unit. So we can take a huge step for the combined division. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all of you helping me serve as a DCGR. Most of all, I have learned a lot from commanding general major general response. Thank you, your great leadership, sir. 2ID RUCD is able to show it's the strongest and greatest combat power in the world. Command sergeant major Franco, he's a role model for rock anxious. He always works together with the soldiers in one team and set an example here. The DCGS general Robinson, DCGM colonel Anderson. For three domains in our combined division, operations, sustainment, and combined operations. You have gradually shared the information and given me more recommendations. I deeply appreciate it. Starting from chief of staff for chair, commander staff, combined staffs, Warriors, you are the excellent talent proceeding the best output through the close coordination and deep discussion. I believe based on mutual trust of team, our team is getting better and becoming through one team. MSC commanders and command sergeant majors, I will never forget you trying the best to make sure to combine the readiness and posture with your contribution to communicating with the soldiers and Warriors in the field. It was a great pleasure and honor making the glorious history of a second important division, logonous combined division together in 2022. We have improved combined operations capability through combined tactical discussion with the service core and second fleet and conducted the city FCS, electric warfare training, GCCA counterpart of FTX, combined CWM trainings, and wet gap crossing trainings. Also, we have increased mutual understanding and friendship with the many rock units and civil communities. Although I'm living here, our combined division continues its glory and history of a second to none. And I will also try to try the best to serve as the bridge between GC and the combined division to ensure ironclad combined and combat readiness and posture. Finally, I would like to express my almost respect and deference to all of you showing your dedication to stability and security on the Korean Peninsula. I'm looking forward to the further development of a second ID and logon US combined division. Also, it's a great honor to be given a glorious award. I will treasure it as a family higher room and hand it down to my descendants for generations. Thank you. Second to none, fight to not, you go together, 같이 갑시다. 감사합니다. And if we can go ahead and have our command group lead off and say your final farewell, and then we'll bring the room around.


We're on our way back into work today for Friday. Once again, we have no idea what's on the agenda for today, but we know we're going to be trucking. So I'm on the way there right now, we're going to get the truck warmed up, it's a little bit nipply this morning, it's minus four, it's not bad at all, but it should heat up throughout the day and tomorrow is supposed to be hot, so it's going to be a good weekend. But first, let's have a good day today, alright, let's say it together. Today is going to be a good day. There's Bill's clean pickup by the office, always clean, always clean, I don't know how he does it. They've got two vehicles, they have an SUV too, but it doesn't matter which vehicle he brings here, it's always clean. My pickup has been dirty every day this week, I've been so ashamed and so embarrassed to drive past his clean truck every day. But I like it though because he motivates me to keep my vehicle cleaner, when I see somebody who takes the extra effort, because that's a lot of effort, I don't know I talk about this a lot and we're going to get into some Bullsnot products this weekend to show you how you can help, show you how I can help you to keep your vehicle clean as well. But what I'm saying here now is that driving past his clean vehicle every day, I know that that takes work and effort, that he doesn't just wake up in the morning and poof, he's got a clean vehicle. So it motivates me to do better. But this week, I just haven't had the time, I've been working long days, which is okay, and I also, it's been a little bit colder, so I couldn't pull out my pressure washer. Well, we got all weekend, we got all weekend, we'll get it all cleaned up, maybe tonight it's Friday, maybe, I think it's Friday, it's Friday right, I hope it's Friday, I'm so disappointed if I find out it's Thursday, because this whole morning I've been all excited that it's Friday. There she was, okay here she is, let's go, sneak in beside it, there you go. Good morning you beautiful beast, she's old, she's old, seasoned as you'd say, she has seen some things, I'm sure, she could tell you stories, but now she is under my care. And we're gonna see what we can do to leave her better than we found her. I've already got her all cleaned up in the back there, got all the junk out of the headache rack and stuff and got everything organized. Oh, I was gonna bring my vacuum today, shoot, I was gonna vacuum her out today if I had time, I'll have to do that next week I guess. Let's go wake her up and get to work. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, let's check your oil, see how you're doing, how you're doing, you're healthy, you're healthy, how you're doing. She's still doing good, but she's ever so slowly losing a little bit, or burning a little bit, which I'm not surprised, it's a very old truck, needs a rebuild I think.  Birds are singing, sun's shining, diesel fumes are still in the air, it's a good day. So this is our assignment for this morning, got 605 here.  Sounds fun, right? So much better starting your day with a nice warm sun, birds singing, and no snow. Switching it up a bit, keeping it fresh, making sure it still works. We're singing the song of our people, I wish you could hear them coming a mile away. We've been quite half the trailer, it's 24 feet, so very close to half the trailer. Look at it, I'm on my way back down. So I'm not too long here, quickly double check on the load, shifted or moved around or anything, I think that's exactly where it should be. We've got half the trailer back there that we can fill up another day, or maybe later today, who knows, who knows. No Lamborghini in my trailer today, sorry guys, that does not happen So yes, I did get pretty excited and I went into the office and I went up to the boss and I asked him, asked him, hey, I got this really cool car, but I'd really like to share it. They watch my videos every day. Hey boss, hey guys, and if I could share this, it's like my dream car, it's the car that I had like plastered all over my walls as a kid, except this was a brand new one. So yeah, we can't just had some guidelines, that's why the videos were pushed back a little bit this week and kind of all over the place, because we wanted to make sure that we got all the documentation done. That's what I was doing on Monday, was just getting some paperwork, documentation, inspection and whatever else they need to do with that car done. And then we bring it back, we unload it and the customer picks it up right away, and we get it out of our possession into the rightful owner's possession. All right, so we hold on to it for a short time as possible, and it gets to where it needs to be. I don't know where it went. I honestly don't know where it went, but it's probably in a pretty secure garage. It's all I'm gonna assume, I don't guess, but what an amazing car that was. And I'm gonna go on and on about it for a while, I think, because that was one of my dreams, I was like a dream come true, just being able to see it. I didn't touch it, that's the rules, you don't touch the cars unless you have to. So we hold a lot of different kinds of vehicles and cars and stuff, but you don't touch them unless you have to, all right, and you don't move it unless you have to, and as short of a distance as possible, right, just from like the trailer to where the owner picks it up. That was what, it was pretty special. So by the time you guys saw what I had hauled that day, it was long gone. Just gotta move up just a bit, weekend is here. What have you guys got planned? Well actually just our washer broke down, and you're gonna see that in tomorrow's video. It's a lot, probably gonna be a lot longer video than this one, but an adventure. Unexpected expense, but isn't that what life's all about? You just finally start catching up, and then all of a sudden boom, something breaks down, and then you buy that, like all right, we're gonna have to catch up, but before you can catch up, boom, another thing breaks down.  That's just life. So yeah, this weekend is going to be pretty much dedicated to getting a new washer and dryer, because the wife wants a set, so the wife's gonna get a set. I have to agree with her though, I actually would like a set as well too, so that they match. Because the washer and dryer is the first thing you see when you come into our house, and if the first thing you see doesn't match, it really sets the tone for the rest of the house. Maybe just me? I don't know. It didn't really bother me that much, it's laundry, just as long as they work, right? Whatever, but we're gonna go get a set, and I guess just hang around and wait until Monday so we can go back to trucking. No idea what we're doing next weekend, but I can tell you it's going to be fun.  It's going to be great. A few introductions, real quick before we go. Weiner, for those of you who haven't met you yet, state your name, state your purpose. My name is Veena. His name is actually Frank, but he's also Frank, so that gets confusing. He was a foster that we took on and he became a part of the pack, so he's here now as well, so we are Frank and Frank.  We call him Weiner, and he responds to it. He actually likes that name a little better, I think. This is Weiner. We call this guy Big Frank. That's how we used to, there was Frank and Big Frank, but now there's Weiner and Frank. He's also the commander of the Galactic Federation. Just so you know, I know you guys have heard a lot about us already. Not what you expected, I know, but you should see him in his true form. Maybe one day. Maybe one day when everyone lets it out, right? Everyone lets us show. Exactly. So he's the commander, he makes all the rules. Off in the back of our house here, we got my messy workstation, where sometimes I work, sometimes I don't. And we got Chevy McFluff. He's our biggest boy. He is Chevy.  He's a very soft, sensitive boy. We won't bug you for too long, Chevy. He always sleeps in here because it's quiet in here, and we're too noisy for him, and he likes to get his Mattish rope all the time. His rest. See, he is half Golden Retriever, half German Shepherd. And if you haven't already heard, the story behind that is when Britain and I got married, we decided to get a new dog. And I wanted a German Shepherd, she wanted a Golden Retriever, and then we found a breeder that put them together into one. And we got him. We got him actually with some of our money that we got as gifts from the wedding. So he is a wedding gift to us from all of our guests there. Nice, Chevy? But he's priceless. You can't put a price on this guy. He's the best dog I've ever had. Don't tell Diesel. He's so well behaved. All right, and what else we got going on in here? Oh, we got a weasel. The one, the only, the Lord of all the weasels, the Lord of the weasels. And all of our laundry. Don't mind that, it's laundry day.  Diesel. Diesel has been with me pretty much every day for the last 10 years. He turns 10 years old in August this year. Can you believe it already? We started making videos when we got him as a puppy. You're the same age as my channel. I don't know why I'm resting on his butt. It's kind of weird, isn't it? It's a good pillow. Good boy. Anything you want to say? It's nap time, eh? It's Sunday and I'm disturbing all their naps. Good boy, Diesel. Diesel, weasel. Yeah, that's the family. The wife's at work right now. I'm sorry I can't introduce you to her. I'd really love to include her in a lot more videos. I know. I know she hasn't been in a lot and that hasn't been on purpose. It's just our work schedule, the way it works. And usually we come home in the evenings and we just want to relax. And we're already in our pajamas by the time we get going with everything. But I'll make a point of that. Yes, she's at work right now. She's bringing home the dough. So if you're new to the vlogs here, hey, how's it going? I'm Josh. You can call me Josh. I drive a truck, so I'm known as Trucker Josh. I'm pretty easy to find. You can just Google me. But hey, you don't need to do that because you've already found me.  It's the weekend. Should have known that. But yeah, tell your friends about the channel if you like it. There's a lot of different variety on this channel. Yeah, the majority of what I do is trucking, but this channel isn't a trucking channel. It's not all about trucking. It's also about my life outside of trucking because it's the whole big picture is what I'm trying to share with you here. We've been doing this for a while. We're on episode. What is this? 2273? 2272, right? So 2,272 videos. And I have quite a few from before that before I started counting it. Been doing this since 2011. So some videos are longer. Some are shorter. Some might have the time to invest like hours into others. I sort of have to throw it together. But the goal is to get somewhat of a daily experience on record here for you guys in a daily vlog. I don't release every day. I wish I could, but some days I work real late. I get home. Got responsibilities to take care of. There's no time to put videos together. So what I always tell people is that I make videos. I try to make a video every day, but I don't promise every day. So I'm a daily vlog channel, but you'll just have to understand that some days there won't be a video. Or maybe there won't be a video for a couple of days like this last week and then we'll catch up and do a big dump on the weekend and dump three videos in your lap for you to enjoy over the weekend and sort of catch up like that. I don't really have a schedule, but I appreciate you for being here. I appreciate all my viewers, those of you who have been here the whole 10 years, and those of you who just found me now. Don't forget to hit that like button before you go. It helps me a lot. It helps with the algorithms. That's an easy and free way to help me and my channel. You can always share it with your friends as well. If you want early access to my videos, it could be a few hours early or even a day early down below in the description. There's a link to my Patreon page where you can become a patron and you get early access to all of my content before anybody else. So there's that as well. Anyways, thanks for watching today, everybody. Appreciate you and we'll talk to you in our next video.


Apple Action Wireless has some of the best data rates in wireless on our plans and not to mention an amazing deal on one of our hottest smartphones, but that's all the time I have to explain. See store for details. Better service. Bigger savings. That's today's Apple Action Wireless. On the softball side of things, the Pikeville Lady Panthers hit the road this morning for Owensboro, Kentucky, as they prepped for pool play in the state All-A softball tournament. The Lady Panthers making their seventh trip out of the past eight years, representing the 15th region. The Lady Panthers will begin pool play in the state All-A tournament tomorrow morning, and each pool is made up of four teams, and each team is guaranteed three games. We caught up with head coach Dave Thomas and some of the girls to talk about the upcoming tournament. We're excited about our trip. It's going to be seven out of eight years, so it'll be, again, an exciting long trip to Owensboro, but we're excited about the opportunity to play for our state championship. I'm really excited. I think being a senior this year makes it a little different and more emotional. We have a lot of energy, and we've worked really hard, and I think we're just really excited to go down there and make a lot of noise. I feel like we're all pretty prepared. We've been there a couple times, so we have a feeling of the teams, and we've grown more as a team together. We're good about our team. We've been playing really well. It's late. However, the range got us lately. We haven't got to play as many games as we'd like to, but we have been playing well. We're scoring a lot of runs. We're good at pitching America Con, our senior leader, and we're making plays in the infield and outfield, so we're excited about our opportunities and go down there and let the chips fall where they may. The Panthers begin pool play tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. against Williamstown, and then at 12.30 against Whitefield Academy, and then in their final game of the day at 4 p.m., the Panthers will take on Green County.


So, so these two would be the primary kind of sub ledger reports. If I go into the vendor balance summary, for example, and there we have it. Now we've got the accounts payable totaling to 1.602 and it's broken out by who we owe the money to. If I go back to the first tab, we can see I'm sorry to the balance sheet that ties out to the 1.602.67 here. That makes sense, however, we often don't use this report as much in practice because instead of going there, we're going to go into the vendor center. We're going to go to the left-hand side. We're going to go into the expenses tab in the accounting view and then we could sort by the expenses up top and filter, for example, by the type, which is a bill and possibly sort by the open bills that have not yet been paid. And that's one way we can sort this information. It actually gives us a nice total down here in QuickBooks, which is really cool because that means we can actually tie this out without an actual form to what's on the balance sheet right there. So in practice, that's what you would probably be doing when you're sorting your bills, but you always want to think about when you're doing that, that you're tying out to an amount basically on the balance sheet for accounts payable. Going back to the tab to the left, you can also sort it over here. I'm going to open up the tab and go back to the expenses and you could go into the bills and do a similar sorting method in here for the unpaid bills, for example, or you could go into the vendors and you could say, I want to see the open bills by vendor. And now if they had multiple bills that were open, they would be here. You don't get this nice sub-total down below, but it's the same information. So if I go back over here on the balance sheet, this balance has a nice sub-ledger, which we could make a report for, which looks like this. This would be the most natural sub-ledger report which you could use in reporting purposes, but oftentimes in practice, we're going to be using that vendor center area to get that same information.


Gylew g English. A tyfn o lotr, maen nhw hefyd yn cael eu darntheu. Da hollwch eu hyd yn hawdd y g Delun i gynedig. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I would ask those members who would wish to speak in the debate to press the request to speak buttons. I call on Audrey Nicoll to open the debate around seven minutes. I placed that motion on increasing the participation of women and girls in STEM? I was privileged to speak to that wonderful woman during my research and I like to extend my thanks to organisations that submitted very informative briefings, a head of today's debate, namely STEM, science, technology and engineering and the Mathematics almost every aspect of modern society from food production to advancements in medicine, economic forecasting, a growing space sector, arts, culture. STEM is a key driver of economic growth in Scotland. My personal interest in STEM is deeply linked to the north-east energy sector and the rapidly growing demand for a strong STEM workforce to help facilitate our ambition to become a global energy hub. In his report, making the switch, Professor Paul Dallu of the Robert Gordon University reminds us the north-east hosts a workforce that possesses the specialist knowledge and expertise to deliver and accelerate the energy transition. However, women make up only around 25 per cent of the oil and gas industry workforce and approximately 18.5 per cent of the offshore wind sector. That is, of course, seen elsewhere with women underrepresented in STEM on multiple levels, and while progress has been made to close the gender gap, the gap still exists. The parity in STEM learning between boys and girls diverges as children move through secondary school, with girls significantly less likely to learn STEM subjects beyond higher stage than boys, the leaky pipe analogy. In their briefing, close the gap highlight, fewer girls take STEM subjects such as physics, computer science and engineering science at higher level compared to boys. 73 per cent of female STEM graduates do not pursue a career in this area. Only 9 per cent of STEM professors are women, and women account for 11 per cent of directorships in the STEM sectors. Gender stereotyping, a lack of role models, access to STEM programmes and challenges around work-life balance and family responsibility all play their part. I spoke to many women working in the STEM sphere who spoke about how children's attitudes about gender and work roles become fixed at an early age and heavily influence their future subject choices. Close the gap, set that out clearly in their briefing. The crucial role of inspirational teachers and lecturers, supportive parents and carers in encouraging but not forcing STEM learning and careers. The Teach First report, Missing Elements, Why Steminism Matters in the Classroom and Beyond, highlights that only half of the UK population are able to name a female scientist. However, the good news is that I now understand that you can buy a Barbie professor, so all is well in the world. Beyond education, I heard about unwelcoming work environments where stereotypes about the different roles of men and women were strong. One academic spoke of our increasingly gendered society and how some men are, as she put it, blind to the issues of gender imbalance. Another academic spoke of the subtle barriers women in STEM face while at the same time being constantly reminded of her role as a STEM influencer. Another engineer told me of the pressures she felt to try harder to do more to prove herself and the lack of access to flexible working and good-quality part-time jobs was evidence and critical access to affordable good-quality childcare. Common themes about the challenges facing girls and women, but also much consensus on how to respond and some great examples of work already under way. Aberdeen City Council, Robert Gordon University, University of Aberdeen and Nescal have developed the Aberdeen Computer Collaborative, a computer science curriculum from early learning to senior phase, designed to encourage young people to consider a career in teaching computer science. Shell's Girls and Energy Partnership, a one-year course delivered with Nescal and Fife College, to showcase the energy industry's career opportunities to senior phase girls. Today, the Centre for Health Data Science at Aberdeen University is holding the annual Women in Data Science conference that will coincide with the annual worldwide data and science conference being held at Stanford University and around about 200 other locations worldwide. I was also pleased to note Equate Scotland, working in partnership with ConstructEd Scotland, offering a hands-on construction experience for women in graduate or postgraduate engineering. I look forward to hearing other examples of progress during members' contributions today. I welcome the Scottish Government's commitment to the career-wise programme and women in STEM pipeline project. I am encouraged that more female students are enrolling in maths and science college courses and female undergraduate engineering student numbers are increasing. What needs to change? First, tackling gender stereotypes. While initiatives such as taster sessions for girls are welcome, they are insufficient to create sustainable change. Earlier intervention in early years settings is required and prioritising gender competent leadership, particularly in wider education settings. Actively recruiting more women into roles where they are underrepresented and supporting women to access re-skilling opportunities, particularly relevant to the energy sector. Crucially, expanding access to affordable childcare and the Scottish Government's expansion of early learning and childcare to all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds is hugely significant in not only improving the health and wellbeing of children and parents but supporting parents into work, study or training. I look forward to hearing members' minister's response to speakers' contributions today. Again, I thank everyone for their support in bringing the debate forward. We will now move to the open part of the debate, with speeches of around four minutes, please. I call Evelyn Tweed to be followed by Pam Gozel. Thanks to my friend and colleague, Audrey Nicol, for securing this important debate. Although STEM subjects are equally as popular with young girls as with young boys, there is a leaky pipe, as Audrey Nicol has mentioned, which leads to underrepresentation down the line. It should go without saying, but that is not caused by a lack of skill. Stigma is pushing women away from STEM. There are key barriers here, both material and social. Outdated gender roles lead girls to believe that STEM subjects are not for them. The Women in STEM project found a shocking 48 per cent of pupils that they were working with agreed that STEM-related careers are mostly suited to men. Close the gap highlighted in their briefing that girls are still significantly underrepresented in STEM subjects at school, with most recent data showing that girls made up just 17 per cent of computing science, 27 per cent of physics and 11 per cent of engineering science students at higher level. That, under representation, continues into higher education, and there has been only a slight increase in the number of women entering STEM degrees. For example, the number of women entering computing degrees increased from 19.9 per cent in 1920 to 22.7 per cent in 2122 and from 41.6 per cent to 43.8 per cent in the physical sciences. We can all agree that we have to do a lot better here. Early interventions to tackle this stigma and support women and girls in STEM are vital, and I am pleased to see that being taken very seriously in my constituency. From McLaren High's consultation with female pupils to redesign their computer cost delivery to Barnett Burn High's partnerships with external stakeholders, removing barriers and building passion for girls in STEM. Schools across Stirling are embracing a collaborative approach, building professional networks to share resources and curriculum. Female pupils from McLaren High have reached over 200 pupils across 11 primary schools with STEM and robotics workshops. That is helping to grow enthusiasm for STEM and providing very strong female role models. That collaborative approach extends into higher and tertiary education. Fourth Valley College is working in partnership with West College Scotland, Young Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland and Equate Scotland on an ambitious project. By involving older pupils in projects to market STEM to their peers, the Women in STEM project shows the influence of peer mentors in encouraging participation. The project also partners with employers building sustainable pathways for girls to progress into STEM careers, which is absolutely amazing. Innovative thinking is progress, but those ideas need to be backed by funding. A teacher whom I spoke to said that they had been prevented from running specific girls clubs as it would split already limited budgets. They also highlighted challenges providing after-school clubs to those who live in very rural areas. When we don't make space for women and girls of all backgrounds in STEM, we lose out on essential talent and vital perspectives. It was very good today to hear the First Minister speaking positively about encouraging women and girls into STEM and STEM subjects, but progress is extremely slow. We must take opportunities such as this debate to champion the excellent work that is already being done, but we need to push for more. I thank the member for bringing forward this important motion on increasing the participation of women and girls in STEM. The last time I spoke in a debate of this nature, I gave examples of extremely talented females that I had met at universities and research centres. It was clear to everyone in the chamber just how vital it is to support women to pursue STEM subjects because they bring diversity of perspectives that can lead to more innovative and effective solutions to real-world problems. As the member Evelyn Tweed highlighted, we already know that girls are significantly underrepresented in STEM subjects at a higher level, and we already know that the vast majority of female STEM graduates are not employed in STEM fields. Today, I would like to discuss how we act to remove the barriers for our future female STEM leaders. After speaking with the college sector, it is clear that the earlier we engage with school pupils, the less preconceived gender gaps there are. Colleges are doing some great work engaging with schools, for example. In West Lothian College, there are woodworking activities with local primary schools. New College Lanarkshire will also run toddle into STEM events with its earlier-year nurseries. Another fantastic example is the North East Scotland College, which runs an energy programme in partnership with Shell to encourage women into STEM careers. Close the gap believes that one possible solution is to ensure that women have access to training and development opportunities, as well as access to high-quality accessible childcare. I am concerned that the lack of action by the SNP Government will have long-term detrimental impacts. On the first point, I would say that I am concerned about the SNP's decision to roll back the previously announced £46 million in funding for the Scotland's colleges and universities. That funding was vital to Scotland's innovation landscape, and I hope that its removal will not have an impact on closing the gender gap in STEM. As for the matter of childcare, I think that Audit Scotland's report on the fragility of early learning and childcare sector is extremely concerning. Childcare providers are vital to ensuring that parents can return to the workforce. That is key for females in STEM, where there is a lack of flexible working and sometimes a culture of presentism. I am delighted to have contributed in today's motion about increasing the participation of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and maths. The debate has made it clear that we must absolutely increase girls' engagement in STEM-related activities from a young age to tackle preconceived stereotypes. Secondly, we must empower young females to pursue their careers in STEM by supporting the removal of barriers that exist, such as childcare and more. And last but not least, we must see investment. Without it, we risk undermining the STEM sector and closing the gender gap within it. Thank you, Ms Gozo. I now call Pam Duncan-Glancy to be followed by Michelle Thomson. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you also to Audra Nicoll for bringing this debate to the chamber today. Science, technology, engineering and maths are key to boosting future economic growth, driving innovation and finding solutions to some of the challenges of tomorrow and today, like our path to net zero sustainability, renewable energy, AI and the digital world. We cannot, should not and must not leave anyone behind on our mission to do that. That women and girls are still underrepresented in STEM is just not acceptable, it is holding us back. According to the National Science Foundation, only 28 per cent of STEM workers are women. The motion before us today estimates that that figure to be even lower, and even fewer women are represented in leadership positions in STEM fields. There are many reasons for that, but crucially, they can all be traced back to stereotypes that form, as we have heard, quickly and are ingrained from the very early stages of socialisation and education. To fix that, we need to start in the early years and relentlessly focus on it throughout the life course. A 2019 survey by a girl guiding found that more than half of girls aged 7 to 10 said that gender stereotypes changed their behaviour and affected how much they participate in class. A nearly three quarters of girls said that they saw or heard gender stereotypes in school. Those views form and reinforce ideas of what it means to be a girl or a woman, what jobs are suitable for men and women, what education interests they should have and what role in society they can play. That has had an impact on the decisions that young women and girls then make about their subject and career choices as they move through school on to further and higher education and into the workplace. You just have to look at data from the Scottish Qualifications Authority from 2021 to see that. At a higher level, women were far more likely to study art and design, French fashion, food tech and childcare, whereas men were more likely to study computer science, physics, engineering and graphic communications. That, of course, leads on to a trend in higher education of young women being underrepresented in STEM degrees, and that follows them to the workplace. It means that, despite young women being more likely to have higher levels of educational attainment, they have poorer labour market outcomes. Instead, we see women concentrated in low-paid jobs and gender-based inequalities persist. I have highlighted many times in the chamber the importance of seeing people like you in a room. The reality is that, because the number of women and girls in STEM subjects is so low, it is hard for the generation of women and girls to imagine themselves there. I say now to all women and girls listening today that STEM is for you. It is a disservice to you that you have been allowed to think otherwise. It is a missed opportunity for a sector that is too often losing out on the unique perspectives and talents that you bring. We need to change that and the way that we think about STEM, to see it as a field that is open to everyone. As I have said before, and as we have heard from contributions across the chamber today, there is much that we need to do to encourage women and girls to pursue careers in STEM, and it is our duty to do so. By working together, we can create a more inclusive and equitable world where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential, crucially, a world where women do not have to break the glass ceiling because they have constructed a world without it. I thank my friend and colleague Audrey Nicholl for bringing this important debate to the chamber today and for speaking so eloquently on this matter. I was an early adopter in technology and, having done a degree in music in the early 1980s, it quickly became apparent that technology had pervaded even the world of crotchets and quavers, and I found myself composing music for a repertory company using early versions of synthesisers and samplers, which led me ultimately to a postgraduate diploma in IT. Yet at school, IT held no interest for me. The computer room was filled with boys speaking an incomprehensible language, and at that point I couldn't discern the purpose and potential in IT. Seeing its application in music changed my perception, and I ended up spending time as a computer programmer, systems analyst and project manager. Ironically, the skills required in many STEM subjects were similar to those that I needed for music—problem solving, communication, creativity, critical thinking and data analysis. Anybody who has had to interrogate and analyse a complex piece of music such as that by Bach will understand what I am talking about. Improving the gender balance of STEM subjects in Scotland has been an ongoing issue for all of my life. Looking back even to 2015, when I was first elected as an MP Skills Development Scotland, in conjunction with the Institute of Physics and Education Scotland introduced a project entitled Improving Gender Balance Scotland. Eight years on, and the gender gap across STEM subjects is regrettably still evident. STEM Women in 2021 note that across the UK, just 19 per cent of those enrolled in a computer science-related subject were female. Worse, globally, research suggests that just 3 per cent of students enrolled on an ICT course are female. My early years in IT were filled with young, ambitious women such as myself, yet fast forward today, and we find that sector is one of the lowest ratios of female to male employees of any STEM sector. Over the course of my IT career, I saw many senior roles being dominated by men. The phenomenon already mentioned the so-called leaky pipeline still prevails and proves that this is a complex systemic issue rather than the kinder analogy of a few drips and leaks. I would be very wary of distilling the issue into a somewhat trite SNP-bad consideration, as world data and UK data demonstrates, for example, that 35 per cent of entrance to STEM higher education subjects are women. Data from the UK-wide UCAS shows that only 25 per cent of them graduate and only 30 per cent of the small number have sustained careers in their related subjects. As young women start to make choices over future careers, perhaps some arguably like the younger version of me relate to the phrase, if you can't see it, you can't be it. Those issues that limit women's economic participation in society—the same issues we come up against time again—caring, childcare responsibilities, gender stereotypes, unconscious bias and lack of flexibility in roles—can be compounded in STEM-related careers, where, for example, short-term breaks have a disproportionate effect due to the speed of technological advancement. The role of mentoring a network of support for women such as that provided by a quate and mentioned in today's motion is therefore crucial. In commending their work and the support provided by the Scottish Government, it is vital that more companies engage with those initiatives to bring about positive change led by and supported by women themselves. As Government wellbeing plans progress, we must focus on a truly gendered lens for all policies. Schools, universities, colleges, business, industry and academia must too all play their part. I thank Audrey Nicholl for securing this debate today. We are in a climate emergency, one that requires urgent, wide-reaching and radical change to what is still, despite all our warnings, despite all the evidence, a fundamentally fossil economy. If that changes to happen at the necessary scale and pace, it needs the work, the skills, the creativity and dedication of all members of our society. We simply cannot afford to maintain barriers, visible or invisible, conscious or unconscious, of ableism, racism or, as we are focusing on this afternoon, gendered exclusion. I am proud that the work of dismantling those barriers of supporting and enabling women and girls to play a full and active role in climate science and application is well and away in the north-east. Audrey Nicholl rightly celebrates work happening in Aberdeen, and I would like to commend the Dundee and Angus regional STEM partnership, which includes Dundee and Angus College, Abertau University, the University of Dundee, Education Scotland, Dundee City and Angus councils and partners in industry. In September last year, the partnership hosted a STEM expo at the Michelin Scotland Innovation Park in Dundee, with a theme of sustainable energy. It invited 750 stage 2 pupils from all 16 public secondary schools across Dundee and Angus, together with other schools in the region. It also secured funding to pay their travel to the event. Over two days, it hosted 438 students and 35 teachers, with an equal 50-50 representation of school students identifying as female and male. Building and sustaining those relationships between schools, universities and other institutions is vital to the task of encouraging and supporting girls and young women to study STEM subjects and embark upon STEM careers. At the University of Dundee, Professor Sue Dawson has recently hosted 60 secondary school students from Tayside to showcase the key discipline of environmental science in practice. They not only benefited from Professor Dawson's expertise and enthusiasm, but also from her example as a woman in a senior role. As Michelle Thomson has said, we know it is hard, if not impossible, to be what we cannot see. Role models, women in science who display not only professional success but also integrity, generosity, wisdom and humanity are essential. We are fortunate in the north east to have many such exemplars. Women like Dr Rebecca Wade of Abertaire University, National STEM Ambassador of the Year for 2021 and 2022. The climate crisis is closely entwined with the biodiversity and food crises, and the north east region has also visible an inspirational female leadership in tackling these urgent challenges, with women as two of the three professors at Aberdeen University's Rowett Institute. Aberdeen has also hosted specific conferences for women and girls, allowing potential and active women scientists to share their experience and expertise. Those examples of leadership are complemented by initiatives established by women students, including the Women in STEM group at the University of Dundee, which focuses on sharing information and opportunities, offering support and building an empowering environment. Of course, the range of disciplines in STEM extends far beyond traditional science and engineering. Women are slowly becoming increasingly important and visible within the IT and computing sectors. The growing prevalence of interdisciplinary projects also reminds us that there is no necessary bright line between STEM and non-STEM subjects, and that there are many alternative routes into science and scientific work beyond the traditional pathways. In closing, Presiding Officer, we all, politicians, academics and business people, need to look beyond formal processes and received wisdom to identify and address less visible factors that lead to underrepresentation of women and girls. The patriarchy we know can be insidious as well as egregious if we are to be truly effective in both fulfilling individual potential and facilitating responses to critical global and local issues. We cannot simply slot women and girls into existing structures. Instead, we need to find ways to recreate networks, processes and institutions so that they work better for everyone of all genders. That is work for all of us here and beyond this place—vital work. That cannot be postponed. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I begin by congratulating Audra Nicollin on securing today's debate on increasing participation of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and maths. It will be no surprise to the chamber that this is a topic close to my heart. However, the irony is not lost on me that I stand here as one of the leaky pipe highlighted in the motion and referenced by many contributors and also referenced in the 2012 Royal Society of End Report tapping all our talents. The report was initiated by the then scientific adviser within the Scottish Government, Professor Deyman Glover, and a 2018 review by Professor Leslie Yellowleece. In the preface, she asks these questions. Has the infamous leaky pipe and the lack of women making it to leadership positions in academia been fixed? Are more than 27 per cent of female graduates entering a STEM-related job on graduation? Are women in STEM in a better position or a worse position or in the same position as it was previously? These are questions that we have to be vigilant about, as Michelle Thomson indicated. IT is an area where women's participation has fallen behind over the years. What and more needs to be done to enable women to play their full part in shaping our future, helping to solve today's career challenges, as mentioned by Pam Duncan-Glancy, and using STEM-based skills to build up better, more economically vibrant and ecologically sound Scotland? Two of the Scotland's leading outstanding women were involved in that report. Given the importance of STEM with the fourth industrial revolution being upon us, it would be more than disappointing if progress is not being made. I declare an interest today in the board of CERC for over 10 years, laterally as vice chair until May this year. CERC has been addressing those gendered issues over several years, and I want to briefly high-site some of their initiatives, including renaming their buildings as Ava Lovelace and James Jocelyn, Bill Burnell, Bird Leagues. We need even simple measures like that to restress the historical and contemporary prevalence of women's contribution to STEM being overlooked. The Scottish Schools Education Research Centre offers a broad portfolio of services principally in support of STEM areas in the curriculum. From early years practitioners, primary and secondary teachers, to school and college technicians and childminders, its STEM ambassadors programme offers volunteering opportunities for those working or studying at college and university and to engage with young people in STEM activities. We received a briefing from CITB for this debate, and I thank it. One of STEM ambassadors is Ann Okafor. She highlights currently that only 12.5 per cent of construction workforce are women, and this is a missed opportunity. It is 6 per cent of our GDP, and that costs our economy. Ann encourages more women through her visibility by being a visible and accessible role model that girls can relate to. This is something that I have strived through the volunteering roles that I have undertaken, and Ann engages with her brownie troupe on STEM activities. The SERT Young Leaders programme, young people have the chance to inspire, lead and mentor their peers through the creation of a delivery of STEM activities and events within their school communities or youth groups. Both the STEM ambassador and young STEM leaders programmes are compatible with the Government's ambition in this area. The STEM strategy states the long-term goal of promoting efforts to tackle gender imbalances and other inequalities that exist across STEM education and training should continue apace. Limiting access due to factors such as gender, race, disability, deprivation and geographical location are inherently unfair and continue to undermine our ability to deliver inclusive economic growth in Scotland, and the full benefits of STEM education and training will not be realised until that goal is achieved. My message for today is that women become a STEM ambassador, and girls become a young STEM leader. Ms Adamson, I now call Stephen Kerr to be followed by Jackie Dunbar. I have gradually ordered Nicoll for bringing this motion in. Of course, she is quite right, and I want to frighten Michelle Thompson by telling her that I agreed with every word in her speech. If we do not maximise the talent and productivity of every single Scotland, it is Scotland, it is Scottish business, it is our economy and it is our society that will suffer. It is because I passionately believe in equality of opportunity for everyone that I am a Scottish Conservative. To me, that is what Scottish Conservatism is all about. It is about opportunity and choice in supporting every citizen in realising their full potential and to live the best life that they aspire to live. The debate is not about the principle of increasing the participation of women and girls in STEM as much as it is how to do it. What can we do as parliamentarians to encourage more women and girls across our nation to feel confident that they can unlock their full potential in STEM? First, we need to introduce STEM to children from early years through play. I think that we should let children discover the fascination of STEM, all the different aspects of STEM, let them develop their problem-solving skills, let them build things, let them get dressed up and encourage them to let their imagination and their curiosity run riot. Girls and boys alike, no demarcations, no barriers from the very beginning of their educational experience, let's bring STEM to the table in nurseries, in primary and secondary schools. Let's give our children a vision of all the different kinds of jobs that are in every walk of life, which are STEM-based jobs. We have to make a special effort to remove the barriers that seem to have been placed in the way of girls realising their dreams through STEM. We should have what I would describe as inspirational dissatisfaction about the current level of guidance that we give our young people. If we had our way, the Scottish Conservatives would seriously invest in giving our young people the best possible guidance and mentoring. We live in a digital world, put digital technology in their hands, teach them to boss the technology rather than becoming bossed by it. Let's bring the different stages of a child's educational journey together. I learned a new word this week, courtesy of Sir Peter Matheson, the principal of Edinburgh University, inter-digitisation. I hadn't come across that word before. Partly it means—it's a word that describes what hands we bring our fingers together. He used it in the context of bringing all the different parts of an educational journey together. They need to be brought together. We need to bring employers, colleges and universities that are involved with our children much earlier into their educational journey. For example, guidance should not be left to S3 or S4 or S5—it is too late at that stage—to begin to help our young people, especially our young women, to discover where their passions and interests and aptitudes lie, especially in relation to STEM. Careers in STEM, in artificial intelligence, in the space sector, where we, in Scotland, excel, cannot afford our young people, especially girls and women, to think that career opportunities for those sectors are there but for other people. We cannot afford our young people even to begin to think that their dreams cannot be followed because they do not have the same opportunity as anyone else. We must change the narrative about what is possible for all our young people, men and women alike, and we must tackle the idea that going to university is the only route to success. If we get the inter-digitisation right, then our young people should have more exposure to different businesses, different sectors, colleges and universities. They will begin to see the array, the vast array of opportunities that lie ahead of them and that there is a choice of pathways all of which have equal esteem, whether it be in apprenticeship or professional and technical training qualifications or studying for a qualification at college or university, but the narrative must change because there is a commonly held disparity of esteem and that will not change unless the Scottish Government and all of us supporting the Scottish Government tackles this head-on. I have to say to the minister that the track record of this Government on apprenticeships, on funding colleges and universities leaves much to be desired. Ministers must start listening, they must start to shape policy around the outcomes that we want to see happen and that means making tough choices and setting priorities. We cannot have a deep prioritisation of education because Scotland needs its young people to flourish like never before. The world needs our young people to flourish like never before because we are facing big strategic challenges and it is increasingly to the stem subject areas and to stem-based sectors that we look to for solutions. The Government needs to match its actions with rhetoric, so I hope that the minister in his response will bring new thinking to the role that he is now filling because we need it and if he does and he makes the right choices for Scotland and our young people, we on these benches will back him. We need the full potential of our young people, women and girls, men and boys, to be unleashed, especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In fact, we have reached a point where I am required, given time issues 2, accept a motion without notice under rule 8.14.3 to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. The question is that the debate be extended by up to 30 minutes. Are we all agreed? We are all agreed and, on that note, I call Jackie Dunbar. I was going to say that I do not believe that I agree with most of what Stephen Kerr was saying and it will come clear in my speech. Your positive parts, Mr Kerr, I totally agree with in your debate. As the motion states, women and STEM are making important contributions to economic growth and to tackling the climate emergency. That statement applies wherever you are in the world, but in Aberdeen it is something that we need to take particular heed of. Our city has the ambition of becoming the net zero capital of the world. Our journey to being able to call ourselves that will not just involve innovation and new approaches, but also a just transition away from the oil and gas industry that has underpinned our local economy for decades. Women and STEM will have a hugely important role in shaping Aberdeen's future, so we need to support and encourage girls and young women into the STEM sector. When I was discussing this last week, I asked how we encouraged girls and women into the sector, the reply that I received was quick. It was simple and it was not something that I had considered. It was stop stereotyping them. Do not presume that they want to play with dolls. Let them play with their LEGO, their Kinex, their Meccano or whatever it is that their young minds are interested in. It gave me pause for thought. As I remember, at just age two, my client got really upset when she went to a Christmas party at her nursery and Suntie gave her a doll. She was really excited to be allowed to open a present early from Suntie, but she thrust that doll at me when I asked her what she got and said in a really upset tone, I got a dolly, I wanted a tractor. I do not know where that attitude has come from. She could not understand why she got a dolly while the boys got all the cool gifts. As you may guess, that was the last time that my client got a doll from Suntie. Instead, she received a present that expanded her mind and her creativeness. I am proud to say that that client is now a senior OT cybersecurity engineer. I would like to think that some of her success is down to us parents encouraging her to play with what she wanted to play with, no matter if it was classed as gender specific or not. Age-appropriate at all times, of course, Presiding Officer. As I said, we need to encourage women and girls into the STEM sector, and I think that there is a wide recognition of that need. Given the many initiatives that are taking place across Aberdeen, a number of which have already been highlighted by Audrey Nicholl, Maggie Chapman and Pam Gossel earlier on. I will take this opportunity to highlight two more initiatives in Aberdeen that I believe are worthy of praise. First, as we talk about giving opportunities to young women, I want to welcome the work of the Aberdeen University Women in Science and Engineering Society. That is a group of women who have taken those matters into their own hands and who are creating a strong, supportive community of students in STEM and are helping to encourage the next and future generations of women into STEM. Secondly, TechFest. TechFest is a charity based in Aberdeen that aims to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities to young folk and the wider community. They do that work not just across Aberdeen but right across Scotland. Only this year's international day of women and girls in science, they held an event in King's Wells, which is in my Aberdeen Donside constituency, with around 130 pupils from primary school in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire being able to get hands on learning experiences and hearing about careers in STEM. As we consider the so-called leaky pipeline, I am encouraged by initiatives like those and the efforts being made across the STEM sector. There is work still to do but we are on the right track. Let us show our girls that it is okay to do the jobs that they want to do and not the jobs that they think society wants them to do. The more we encourage this, the more we will see the benefit to the STEM sector. We have heard some excellent examples of how we can and must work together to create greater and wider opportunities for women and girls to access STEM, employment, training and education. I am greatly encouraged by what I believe to be a broad consensus right across the chamber on the issue. I have never heard Stephen Kerr so thoughtful and constructive in this chamber, so thank you to Audrey Nicholl for securing this opportunity to explore the topic and see Mr Kerr in a new light. This Government, like many others— Stephen Kerr? Because there is one aspect of this debate that slightly does perturb me and that is the fact that the minister and I are the only male speakers. I honestly believe that this is part of the problem, that women understand what the need is but perhaps not enough men do. Otherwise, we would have had more male speakers encouraging women and encouraging the breakdown of the barriers that exist for women in this very vital sector. Felly, sitting here a few moments ago, I was thinking that very point as well, and it is quite telling. This Government, like many others, has been working hard to try and overcome some of the challenges that we know exist, but there is some way still to go. At a strategic level, we should all be proud that Scotland is a world-class research sector where research discoveries drive the improvements and innovations that help us to reach the economic, societal and environmental aims of our national performance framework and sustainable development goals. That includes those around reaching net zero in schools, and particularly in relation to gender. Our STEM education and training strategy includes support for specific actions by a dedicated team of education professionals who support teachers to challenge stereotyping. The improving gender balance and equality offers have engaged more than 1,000 establishments, which has reached nearly 9,500. Of course, gender imbalance needs to be addressed by a wide range of participants, and every sector has a role to play if we are to reach a position where gender is not considered the main factor that determines a young person's future pathway in life. My colleague Evelyn Tweed mentioned some of the challenges that schools have in tackling some of those areas. Will the minister like to reflect on Tony Scully, a young teacher who was founded Dress Code, which is a specific coding club for girls, now rolled out with industry across Scotland, as an example of how that can be brought into our schools? Perhaps we can share that information with Ms Tweed to see if her schools can reach their ambition in their areas by following that example. Mr Scully has been an illuminating debate because I now discover that queer atoms are the psychic powers as well, because I am just coming to that point. For those learners at school for the past three years, we have provided funding for the Young STEM Weather Award for more than 2,500 young people who have already participated in the scheme right across Scotland. We know that attempting to positively influence career directions for girls should begin from an early age. Opinions about who should do what job can be formed by children from the very formative years influenced by their parents, as well as teachers, for example. Those views can often stay with a young person right through to the end of their school career and beyond. Orderly Nicolle Pam, Gozole Pam, Duncan Glancy and Stephen Kerr were right to highlight the need for work to be done in the early school years setting. Skills Development Scotland recognise that and are taking a cross-sector approach in an attempt to address the issue. However, it is important that we attempt to tackle it by means of a holistic approach. The highlighting of female role models is critical in all that. Not least of all, because we know that many women who have followed STEM pathways have done so because they are following the footsteps of family members. As others have noted, Pam Duncan Glancy in particular, if you do not see people like you in a sector, you are hardly going to be drawn to it and we need to take that on board. Presiding Officer, in amongst the raft of statistics and the rara raft of statistics on this whole situation is one that I found intriguing and worthy of a little further explanation. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of young women taking STEM hires rose from 31,795 to 32,745 at almost 1,000 more entries. Over the same period, the figure for passes among women increased from 23,650 to a peak of 28,135. Both those numbers subsequently declined in 2022 for entries to a number below the 2019 figure and for passes to a point only 650 higher. Interestingly, the improvement covered the Covid period in which continuous assessment, rather than the traditional exam-based approach, was at play. There is a school of thought that, because women are believed traditionally to have less confidence in their abilities in the sphere, the amended alternative certification approach held an appeal for them. As I said earlier, I think that this is something worthy of further exploration as we look to tackle this long-standing issue. On the subject of secondary school settings, can I take the chance to commend the work that is being done at McLaren and Barnettburn High Schools in Evelyn Tweed's constituency? In his report on the Scottish technology ecosystem, Professor Mark Logan talks about the chronic imbalance in computing science at school and the fact that gender role stereotyping removes almost half of our future best engineers from the workforce. There is a variety of examples that I could highlight. Tony Scullian's example is one. In response to Michelle Thomson's comments on digital, YMCA Scotland has supported a programme with codeclan to address recruitment retention and progression of women in STEM, but for all the good intentions and all the great effort, there is still a very long way to go. The stats are sobering. Whilst women comprise 49 per cent of those in employment, only 27 per cent of STEM professionals posts are held by women. In the engineering professions, the figure is 11 per cent. At the outset, there is excellent work going on out there, and I am aware of the contribution of Robert Godd's university. As we look for other best practice, and again, Aberdeen and the surrounding area is where your attention is drawn to, because beyond the work of RGU and others, you look at the North East College and its Girls in Energy programme, which has introduced more than 650 young women into engineering, providing pathways to college, university and apprenticeships, and more than 75 per cent of them have pursued engineering after leaving school. I met some of them on a visit to the Angus training group a little while back, and I was struck by how warmly they spoke of the initiative. I contrasted those conversations with one that I heard with a girl from my constituency who pursued her career path in spite of the educational influences around her, which included her being told by a teacher that engineering was not girls' work and that she might instead consider hair and beauty or childcare. Is it any wonder that we struggle to get young women into this line of work? As we know, apprenticeships are a key way for employers to invest in their workforce, providing the skills needed both now and in the future. Although girls achieve as well as boys in apprenticeships, they participate at a much lower rate. In the acknowledgement of that, Skills Development Scotland has identified a series of practical steps that employers can take to offer a more flexible approach. With colleges, there has been limited progress in improving the gender imbalance at college level. However, it is an illustration of the hill that is yet to be climbed. In 2021, only 2 per cent of starts on construction and related modern apprenticeships were female, but that is not a problem peculiar to Scotland. I thank the minister for taking that intervention. Since he mentioned colleges, I feel that it would be a miss of me not to bring this up. Nearly 60 per cent of students in colleges are women. Is the minister concerned at the redundancies that we are seeing across Scotland in relation to colleges and what does he think his Government can do to protect women from those, as well as others? I think that we were talking about a highly important issue on STEM. The member knows full well that I have concerns about the situation that is causing it, and we have covered that before. That is not a problem peculiar to Scotland. Whilst in the Isle of Wight last week, as part of an island's forums gathering, I visited the local colleges there, the setup was very impressive. Wondring around the engineering area, I have struck that, from a cohort of circa 30, only one woman was present. I await that not to deflect from the issue that is confronting us here in Scotland, but by way of illustration of the fact that no one has yet found a means of cracking this. As the motion for this debate rightly notes, we need to aim for a culture in which women and girls can enjoy and take advantage of the quality of opportunity in STEM. This is an ambition that will take time and patience to fully deliver, but we need to make progress faster. It is clear that we have the support for our ambitions here in Parliament and beyond. As part of my ministerial portfolio, I will work with partners to achieve a common understanding of what actions will deliver sustainable improvement and implement those. As part of that, I am absolutely open to ideas and suggestions from whichever direction they come. Thank you minister. That concludes the debate, and I suspend this meeting until 2.30pm.


All right guys, we are here at Anytime Fitness and I'm about to go and meet someone that I've met on Instagram. I've never met up with someone to have a training session like this before, but we're about to smash the marms and then we're both going to go to the INBA South Australia seminar to get some information on the show that I'm planning on. So yeah, I'm going to go in now and let's get to it. How killer are these things? I've had one flight two years, haven't even used the thing. All right, so that is the arm workout done.  And now we're both driving to the INBA seminar. So we're about to find out from some PNBA pros what it's all about and what you need to do and what to expect.