Member Article

Company supports engineers of the future

LEADING pump solutions provider C&A Pumps and Engineering is helping nurture the region’s engineering stars of the future.

The Hartlepool company took part in an event organised by Dyke House Sports and Technology College in the town which aims to promote science-related industries as a viable career option for pupils.

The theme of this year’s programme was offshore wind and around 100 Year 10 pupils were given the chance to simulate a project from the allocation of a team, through to the planning and development, and then on to the final construction of the turbine structure.

Alan Roberts, owner of C&A Pumps and Engineering, attended the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) event. He said: “We need to feed the future of engineering as the UK has an ageing workforce within the industry so it’s vital we support young people and show them there are careers out there for them.

“Engineering isn’t just about building. There are all sorts of opportunities to be had and it’s our job to raise awareness of them. I’ve done quite a bit with Dyke House School in the past so I was delighted when they invited me along to support this fantastic event. It’s great to see some of the ideas the pupils have. There could very well be some engineering stars of the future here.”

During the two day programme, which was also supported by Hartlepool Borough Council, Hartlepool College, Heerema, XIVVI and EDF Energy, pupils got to experience all aspects of developing a business proposal, from the financial planning and marketing and PR to building model wind turbines and translating emails sent from mock German companies.

Tina Davison, maths teacher and STEM co-ordinator at Dyke House, said: “We wanted to give the pupils real-life experience of what is involved in an offshore wind project and I think they thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

“They got to work in teams to develop their ideas which they then shared with the wider group and because of the different elements of the sessions, everyone got to contribute and they all learned a lot. Hopefully it’ll encourage some of them to look seriously at a career in engineering.”

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