Carr Hill students recently took part in an engineering and manufacturing day at global company BAE. The event, called Make it in Manufacturing, aimed to give young people a good understanding of the range of jobs available within the sector via practical exercises.
BAE invited 13 schools from the region to take part in the event. Each school took along eight pupils to form their team. Students were asked to work together and consider their individual skills and talents in order to identify who should take on which role within the team. Job roles included Managing Director, Finance Director, Sales and Marketing Managers, Design Engineer, Logistics Manager and Quality Controller.
The teams were then challenged to design, build and market an unmanned response vehicle on behalf of the United Nations. This could be anything from a James Bond style amphibious vessel, surveillance and bomb disposal units through to landmine clearance trucks.
Carr Hill students decided to create an unmanned rescue and emergency response vehicle. The vehicle was design to be able to transform into different transport modes, e.g. car to helicopter, and was able to visit the sites of emergencies to assess the scene before emergency staff were sent in.
Further challenges were set throughout the day, which is supported by a host of business partners including Siemens, Sellafield, Premier Foods, McBride and sponsored by BAE. Students were also required to meet industry consultants, create finance plans and build a product brand that would appeal to the target customer.
At the end of the day students took part in a pitch which involved explaining their ideas to a panel of industry experts. Students met BAE senior managers in a ‘Dragons Den’ style presentation and were finally scored on completion of key tasks, use of initiative, problem solving ability, teamwork and other enterprising skills and qualities.
Carr Hill students did extremely well throughout the day and as a result they were presented with individual certificates for completing all the tasks and exercises to a high standard.
Louis was part of the eight strong Carr Hill team. He said: “We were all really proud of what we created, the prototype was made of material similar to Lego and we thought it looked great once it was finished.”
Team mate Beth said: “We learnt such a lot and it was loads of fun. We all came up with the idea together and worked hard as a team. It was nice to do something different and a fun experience.”
Mr Beale, organised the activity with BAE and helped to select the Carr Hill students to take part. He said: “The Make it in Manufacturing event is a fantastic opportunity for our students to get some practical experience. It gives them a real insight into the sector and helps pupils to understand what it would be like to work for a company such as BAE. Our students gain valuable experience from the event and enhance and develop their existing skills. It really is a great opportunity and a pleasure to be invited to take part.”
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