10 May 2019
Nearly 700 schoolchildren will have their engineering solutions and ideas judged by a panel of construction and design professionals next week, as part of a national competition that aims to inspire budding engineers.
It is the first year that Jersey students have taken part in the national Leaders Award competition, following a partnership between Skills Jersey and UK organisation Primary Engineer.
As part of the engineering and entrepreneurial competition, students have interviewed and worked alongside engineers to design a product that solves a particular problem. One of the winning Jersey students will have their design built by engineering students from Kingston University.
A range of industry experts will join education and government officials at Les Quennevais School on Tuesday to shortlist the entries. The following day, a panel of local professionals from engineering, construction and education will judge the shortlisted entries with the help of Peter Barrington, Head of Aerospace and Aircraft Engineering at Kingston University.
Primary Engineer are recognised for their award-winning work in the UK, bringing together industry and education to deliver engineering challenges for young people and communities, and helping to reduce the gap in skills for this area of the economy.
Last year, more than 34,000 children across the UK took up the challenge to interview engineers and be inspired to design a solution to a problem they had identified.
Dave Roworth from Skills Jersey commented: “The Leaders Award competition asks children to think like an engineer and find solutions to everyday issues that may affect them personally, or consider wider community problems such as environmental issues that can have a huge impact on all our lives. Not surprisingly, the issue of plastic has been a popular theme, but the amazing range of ideas seen so far has shown just how inspired our children have been by the local engineers and specialists they have met and spoken to.
“We are so grateful to our many local professionals and their companies for supporting this event, and for giving their time to share their skills with our school children. But I don’t envy their task in trying to find the winning designs from such a high quality of entries.”
A celebration awards event, and an exhibition of student work, will be held in July, when it will also be announced which student will have their design built as a prototype by engineering students from Kingston University.
Local engineers and companies wishing to be involved in this ongoing initiative should contact d.roworth2@gov.je
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