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Engineering a role reversal for teachers

TEACHERS and youth leaders from Hartlepool sat on the other side of the desk as they were armed with fun engineering skills to pass on to youngsters.

Representatives from English Martyrs School, Manor College, Dyke House Sports and Technology College, High Tunstall College of Science, Catcote Academy, Hartlepool Sixth Form College, and Rossmere Youth Centre, attended the VEX Robotics training day.

The event was held by Go Ahead Training – the company which was launched to help bridge the region’s engineering skills gap by getting school and college kids to see how rewarding and lucrative a career in the sector can be – at its base in Newton Aycliffe.

The Go Ahead team selected Hartlepool’s schools, colleges, and youth organisations to pilot its innovative robotics programme, which will eventually be rolled out across the whole of the Tees Valley, to get children and young people to grips with the basics of engineering using the remote-control robots.

It stems from a massive shortfall in the number of engineers in the region, and throughout the UK, with around 100,000 needed within the next five years alone.

The teachers and youth leaders took part in a series of activities which saw them split into teams and given a piece of kit, from which they had to build the robot’s chassis and body, code it to give the micro-machine commands, before using them to take part in a football-style competition.

They were also taught about fault-finding and 3D computer aided design – skills they will all be required to take back to their prospective schools to pass onto pupils.

Tia Harper, technology teacher and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) co-ordinator at English Martyrs School and Sixth Form College, in Catcote Road, said: “It’s been great and will be so good to take what I’ve learned back to the pupils.

“I’m hoping to start a STEM club at school because there are so many students who have got the potential to be very good in technology and engineering.

“If they can see the fun element to engineering then it might make them think about a career in it.”

Scott Campbell, youth support worker, from Rossmere Youth Centre, said: “There’s a lack of engineers across the region, and this is a brilliant way of getting them interested in the subject and to start gaining the skills needed.”

Scott’s colleague Derek Minton, project leader at the youth centre, added: “We’re also finding that young females are growing increasingly interested in engineering – there seems to have been a shift from hair and beauty to engineering.”

Retired chartered mechanical engineer, Bowman Bradley, from Wolviston, attended the event as a STEM ambassador.

He spoke passionately about the subject, saying: “The UK is desperately short of engineers of all disciplines. If you go into schools today and ask kids what they want to do then 20 to 25 per cent of them want to do a job in the culture, media, or sport sector. The number of jobs in that sector is 2 per cent – so what are the rest going to do?

“The average chartered engineer earns £65,000 a year with a starting salary of £25,000 to £30,000. It’s a fascinating profession and I’ve travelled all around the world in my work, with somebody else paying.”

Dave Spensley, Go Ahead Training’s Managing Director, said: “If we’re to bridge the skills which currently exists within the North East’s engineering and manufacturing sectors we have to get young people engaged and show them that there are careers our there for them.

“A key element of that challenge is to show them that those sectors can be fun and that’s why it’s so important for myself and the team to deliver the VEX IQ Robotics programme.”

The programme is suitable for children from around nine-years-old up to those studying at degree level.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Felicity Collinson .