RS Components, the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc, the global distributor for engineers, and the University of Northampton recently held an event to give local schoolchildren the opportunity to learn more about the latest emerging technology and experience first-hand the equipment used in industry today. The aim of the event, Tomorrow’s Engineers, was to inspire and inform the potential engineers of tomorrow through interactive training and workshop sessions.
Tomorrow’s Engineers, facilitated by Aspire Northamptonshire, was attended by approximately 60 schoolchildren between the ages of 14 and 16, who were given the opportunity to learn more about the plethora of career paths in engineering. The University of Northampton is a lead partner of the Aspire Network, which was formed in 2015 to work collaboratively to raise aspiration amongst young people across Northamptonshire.
The pupils from Corby Business Academy and Lodge Park Academy took part in a variety of activities, including a tour of the RS Live Innovation in Motion truck to learn about engineering and technology through highly interactive activities, and pi-top workshops that demonstrated how to build a laptop.
“Our aim is to bring engineering and technology to everyone, and to capture the interest of future engineers,” said James Howarth, Head of Product Management, Northern Europe, RS Components. “We recognise how we can potentially influence the uptake of engineering to prevent a future skills gap in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects, and RS Live serves as a highly engaging educational resource for young people across a cross section of age groups, from primary schoolchildren to university undergraduates.”
“We were delighted to partner with RS for this event, which enabled us to reach out to schoolchildren and help them understand how engineering can be an exciting career option,” said John Sinclair, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology at the University of Northampton and STEM Ambassador. “The Aspire Network aims to inspire every child aged 11-16 in Northamptonshire to be the best they can be through delivering high quality resources, support, activities and information; partners like RS help us achieve these objectives by acting as technology-enablers.”
Technology innovator, pi-top, also contributed to the event by delivering interactive laptop-building workshops to the students. The company’s Vice President, Daryl Rodrigo, said: “As a technology startup business that has grown significantly over the last couple of years due to the work of intelligent young engineers, we really support the message that the Tomorrow’s Engineers event wants to convey.”
RS actively engages in educational projects in collaboration with technology innovators such as Raspberry Pi and pi-top to inspire children through a fun and exciting introduction to engineering. The company also establishes formal partnerships with universities across Europe and Asia Pacific through its structured programme, RS University.
