Matravers gears up for budding engineers

Matravers Engineering Day participants

PUPILS from Matravers School recently took part in a series of engineering taster workshops delivered by careers service, Tomorrow’s Engineers.

The year nine pupils got involved with presentations and activities designed to demonstrate the applications and importance of engineering, and the types of careers it can offer.

Sara Ashdown of Learn by Design, the company who commissioned the workshops, said “There will be a real shortage of engineers in the next ten years unless more young people continue to study science and maths and go into the field. This affects both local and national companies, some of whom already support and help finance what we do.”

The programme was split into three workshops:- one discussing creativity and innovation in engineering; one, a practical, problem solving session in which the students used robots to  complete tasks; and one based on challenging stereotypes surrounding the field.

Sara Ashdown, who hosted the talk on dispelling stereotypes, said, “The biggest stereotypes – that women don’t work in engineering, and that engineering is always about engines – must be broken down so that pupils can make properly informed career decisions.”

Phillipa Denham, Matravers’ acting assistant headteacher, praised the programme and said, “A lot of engineering happens behind the scenes so the pupils don’t see it. These workshops help to give them a fresh insight to  what engineering is really about and how it applies to the world around them. The programme also puts their education into perspective and could help them with their GCSE subject choices.”

The Tomorrow’s Engineers project was contracted by workshop providers Learn by Design. The programme also had support from aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the Royal Air Force, and charity Engineering UK.

For more information visit www.tomorrowsengineers.co.uk.