09.07.13
100 students enjoy railway engineering residential course
The latest railway engineering residential course, held at the University of Bath, has been heralded as a great success.
The event last week, sponsored by the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE) and Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF), saw 100 students explore the design, construction and operation of railways.
The course, run by independent educational charity The Smallpeice Trust, forms part of a major initiative to encourage young people to consider railway engineering as a future career.
The 13 and 14-year-olds learnt through presentations and practical exercises, working in team to tackle ‘real-life’ engineering challenger, with help from young engineers and major organisations like Network Rail, TfL, Babcock Rail and FirstGroup.
Eileen Kinghan, director of grants at LRF, said: “For a third year, LRF agreed to support Smallpeice’s railway engineering Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Days and a residential course. The Smallpeice initiatives give young people an understanding of the skills they need to develop to equip them for the new and increasing opportunities that we are seeing in this fast-moving sector.”
Gil Howarth, chief executive of NSARE, added: “The railway engineering industry offers young people great career opportunities. Now more than ever before is an exciting time to join the industry with a huge amount of money and new technology being invested in our railways to ensure they are world class. There are opportunities for young people to join the industry from school as apprentices or graduates with the opportunity to progress in their career development as far as they wish, quite literally as the industry offers career opportunities across the world for those who wish to pursue them. We are delighted to be working with The Smallpeice Trust and LRF and to raise awareness of the exciting career opportunities Railway Engineering can offer young people.”
Dr Andrew Cave, chief executive of The Smallpeice Trust added: “We are most grateful for the continuing support from NSARE and LRF on this programme. Rail is one of the greenest forms of transport and massive investment is being injected into our railway infrastructure. Giving young people the opportunity to discover for themselves the excitement, challenge and reward of a career in railway engineering is vital in encouraging the engineers of tomorrow while equipping them to meet the social, environmental and economic challenges of the future.”
Tell us what you think – have your say below or email [email protected]