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Stem Ambassador
Otto Simon Ltd • January 8, 2018
Guest Blog – Vikas Saxena BEng(Hons) MSc MIET, EC&I Engineer at Otto Simon and STEM Ambassador.
I’ve been a STEM Ambassador for the past 5 years, working with schools and education organisations to encourage enthusiasm and understanding of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects, and raising an awareness of careers related to STEM.
Last November, I participated in the Loreto College Engineering & Applied Physics Speed Meet 2017. Now in its third year, this event invited fifty students from Loreto’s Sixth Form and Year 11 Students from local secondary schools across Manchester and Salford to network with engineers from a variety of STEM industries. The event comprised of two ‘speed meets’ for small groups of students to spend 5 minutes chatting with each engineer / physicist about their profession and daily job challenges. The students were then encouraged to continue discussions during networking breaks, asking us everything from types of projects we’ve worked on, to salary, typical job routines, benefits and working hours.
I was proud to participate in this event, as I believe it helps the students to analyse various options available in the job market and make an informed decision about their career. It also helps them to understand what are current challenges and requirements in certain industries so that they can align their educational path in order to suit their professional objective. It was great to see so many STEM industries represented at the event from transport and rail, to specialist equipment manufacturing, applied physics, and process, instrument and electrical engineering.
Later in the year, Otto Simon is hoping to facilitate a site visit to one of our on-going projects, aiming to inspire and engage more young people to enter the world of engineering. This technical site visit will be co-sponsored by IET. Other upcoming events I’m looking forward to being involved with for STEM are: ‘Mentor schools in the Greater Manchester Engineering Challenge’, and ‘Interview an Engineer’. Watch this space for details.
Britain has a proud engineering heritage, but there is a shortfall in qualified engineering graduates and skilled technicians. Every year there is an annual shortfall of 20,000 engineering graduates, and with only one third of parents understanding what the engineering profession is, it is up to the industry to promote STEM careers to the next generation of engineers.
2018 is officially the Year of Engineering, a year-long government campaign to support the engineering profession in recruiting the next generation of engineers. It is fantastic to see the government taking an interest in celebrating UK engineering, and as they work with industry partners, schools and families to offer young people a positive experience of engineering.
Find out more about the role of STEM Ambassadors and how you can get involved: www.stem.org.uk/stem-ambassadors
Or discover the more about the Year of Engineering 2018: www.dft.gov.uk/year-of-engineering-2018/
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