Students gear up for 21st century train challenge

STUDENTS from seven schools and colleges in Rotherham are set to battle it out against fifteen other teams in Yorkshire and the Humber to create the ultimate 21st century train carriage in the 'The Northern Rail Engineering Challenge'.

STUDENTS  from seven schools and colleges in Rotherham are set to battle it out against fifteen other teams in Yorkshire and the Humber to create the ultimate 21st century train carriage in the 'The Northern Rail Engineering Challenge'.

The Northern and the Young People's Enterprise Forum (YPEF) has challenged the youngsters, aged between 14 and 19, to develop their engineering skills by designing and building detailed scale models of train carriages, meeting the most up-to-date customer service and engineering standards.

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The challenge - involving students from Rotherham, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, York, Pontefract and Skipton - will provide budding engineers with experience of working on a real-life business project and aims to encourage more young people to enter the engineering industry.

Teams from Swinton Community School, Dinnington Comprehensive School, Oakwood Technology College, Rotherham College of Arts and Technology, St Pius X Catholic High School, The Bridge and Wingfield School are ready to compete in the project.

Andrea Summers, 15, from Swinton Community School, said: "I'm excited about entering the 'Northern Rail Engineering Challenge' because it would be awesome if a design from our group actually helped Northern with their train engineering. I'm looking forward to coming up with ideas and it will be cool to get some hands on experience when making the models of the carriage interiors in the workshops".

 

"I decided to study engineering because I enjoy completing logic puzzles and engineering is a bit like that, because you can find solutions to problems."

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The engineering industry in Yorkshire and the Humber has a significant shortfall of workers 16-24, with only 10% of the workforce falling into this age range, as reported by the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies (SEMTA). An ageing workforce, in addition to a lack of young people entering engineering, have contributed to a skills gap in the region.

Stuart Draper, Engineering Director at Northern, said: "Engineering offers a career where people not only use their creativity, but can also shape the future, making a difference to the way that we live our lives.

"We're proud to be launching the 'Engineering Challenge' in Yorkshire and the Humber, which will give the Rotherham youngsters involved a real opportunity to get first-hand business experience and show them how exciting and rewarding a career in engineering can be."

Some of the student teams have visited Northern's Neville Hill train maintenance depot in Leeds to learn about train maintenance and improvements, experience the sights and sounds of a working rail depot and talk to staff about their work.

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Following the submission of designs, a shortlist of schools and colleges will be invited to present their ideas to a panel of judges at an awards ceremony in July, where the winning team will scoop a three month unlimited rail pass with Northern and gain the priceless experience of helping the engineering team at Northern shape the next programme of train improvements.

Suzy Alderson, Executive Director of YPEF Services Ltd said: "Taking young people out of the classroom and into the world of work is an excellent way to inspire them by giving learning a real world context. The Northern Rail Engineering Challenge does just this, putting young people's creativity and skills to the test to solve a real business task.

"Engineering is an important sector for the region's economy and this project, funded by Yorkshire Forward, is an excellent way to encourage young people to consider a career in engineering."

As well as their creativity, students will be judged on a range of technical criteria and will be expected to be attractive to customers and use environmentally-friendly materials.

The initiative is funded by Yorkshire Forward, supported by YPEF as part of the £2.64m Embedding Enterprise in Education programme and delivered by Rotherham MBC.