The East Midlands' engineers of the future will soon be competing for recognition at the region's 2nd Go4SET Awards. The awards, to be held on 12th March, are the culmination of a 10 week programme in which teams of 12-14 year olds have been working alongside local businesses to discover ways of reducing energy consumption in their schools.
Go4SET is a work-related learning scheme designed to stimulate young people's interest in science, engineering and technology (SET) at a key stage in their education. Delivered by the Engineering Development Trust (EDT), funded by East Midlands Development Agency (emda) through its £6 million STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) initiative, the project links schools and businesses together to deliver a solution to an environmental problem which is both relevant to the school and the company.
This year's energy saving brief required the teams to identify a suitable building on their school site on which to conduct an energy consumption audit. They then had to propose a way of making a significant saving in the consumption of this energy. The teams will present their proposals at the awards event in Nottingham and winners will be announced on the day.
Geoff Jellis, EDT's Business Development Director, commented: "It's great to see the students interacting with local businesses on these projects and we are keen to get more companies on board to build relationships with local schools.
"Participating companies can benefit from having an "early look" at some of the local talent which will be available for employment in later years and have the chance to help increase the level of interest among children in SET careers so that the pool of possible potential employees is larger in years to come."
Andrew Morgan, East Midlands Development Agency's (emda) Skills and Communities Director, added: "Go4SET is an excellent scheme which gets the region's students involved with local businesses and nurtures talent by inspiring students to become the scientists and engineers of the future. Particularly in these difficult times, it is vital more students embrace STEM subjects to maintain the East Midlands' future economic development and help it become a flourishing region."
Local businesses including East Midlands Airport; Rolls Royce; Leicester University and E.On have been working with the school teams to support and guide them through the project.
The teams had to work together to discover the different kinds of energy that their school uses; how it is delivered to the school and how it leaves the school site. The audit had to discover answers to questions such as what is energy? How can it be stored? What is energy used for at your school? And, what determines how quickly buildings lose heat?
Go4SET is just one of four work-related learning programmes delivered by the EDT. As active members of the East Midlands STEM Partnership, the EDT aims to inspire and motivate young people into becoming the region's engineers and scientists of the future.
The Go4SET awards take place during the iFestival, an annual celebration of innovation in the region, running from the 6th March to 17th April, which is also funded by emda, and coordinated by emda and East Midlands Innovation (the Regional Science and Industry Council).