Inspiring Young Minds into Thinking about Engineering

The 2018/19 academic year was another busy time for TWI education outreach at its headquarters in Cambridge and across regional offices in Port Talbot, Sheffield and Middlesbrough. TWI staff, STEM ambassadors, representatives of The Welding Institute Younger Members’ Network and NSIRC Masters students came together to deliver an array of fun activities for schools, colleges and universities.

By linking our outreach activities to real industry challenges we aim to provide a relevant and engaging programme which includes work experience, workshops, outreach days, lectures, laboratory tours, careers events and more.

The programme is designed for a variety of age groups from university and further education students down to primary school children, with 2018-19 seeing us reach over 3500 young people living near TWI laboratories.

Highlights over the year include a design and engineering programme carried out with Swansea University, participation in the opening of an exciting new STEM Innovation Campus at the West Suffolk College in Bury St Edmunds, lectures on sword making to apprentices in Sheffield and at Gower College, materials activity days for sixth formers in Cambridge, a friction stir welding careers day for disadvantaged secondary school children, and Welding with Chocolate for all ages!

Our annual primary school ‘Defect Detectives’ Lego Mindstorms challenge day was another big success with 45 Year 5 pupils competing in teams to design and build the most efficient robot for following a weld line.

In 2019 we also strengthened our affiliation with STEM Learning with an ambassador drive at TWI and co-ordinated a series of materials prizes for young engineers with the Armourers’ and Brasiers’ Company and IoM3.

With the next academic year already underway, we have an array of activities planned to continue to show the relevance and importance of engineering – both for today and the future.