Pupils from Hardenhuish School in Chippenham were among more than 270 from across the Wiltshire, Bath, Bristol and Dorset area who recently attended a Women in Engineering Events at Wiltshire College. The Year 9 and 10 pupils took part in inspiring activities such as robot wars, biscuit bridges and navigating a spacecraft, with the aim of inspiring them to consider a career in engineering and making them more aware of the varied range of careers in the industry.
The event, now in its second year, was hosted by the College to educate and inspire teenage girls to consider a career in engineering and raise awareness of the varied range of careers within the industry and across the region.
Wiltshire College Principal Amanda Burnside explained, “We need to make young people aware of the incredible careers in engineering and there are some fantastic local and national companies attending and universities that will help to showcase the vast opportunities out there.”
Among the activities that took place were flying paper planes, programming robots, drawing through virtual reality and navigating spacecraft, alongside new activities such as creating wind turbines, cosmetic products, virtual welding and ping pong and forensics are certain to prove a hit.
Pupils were able to meet and talk to professionals within engineering including Zircon, Airbus, Avon Rubber plc, the Army and RAF, Society of Cosmetic Scientists, and UWE, Bournemouth and Southampton universities.
David Mayo, Curriculum Lead for Science at Hardenhuish, explained, “These trips are an important part of the way Hardenhuish School provides opportunities for pupils to find out about the lesser-known career paths and job roles. Pupils value these experiences because they are able to ask questions directly to the members of industry who can then respond from a position of direct knowledge, sharing their range of experience. Pupils take away a plethora of information from the industries as well as potentially finding their new ambitions, or confirming their ideas from the guidance they receive.”