EoW January 2014

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January 2014 9
▲ Schoolchildren had hands-on and educational experience of high-tech engineering products, including remote operated vehicles for subsea work from Forum Subsea
Technologies
Corporatenews
January 2014
MORE than 2,700 schoolchildren and
young students attended the recent
Scarborough Engineering Week, aimed at
encouraging youngsters to consider careers
in engineering.
In its most successful event to date, almost
30 organisations – most from Yorkshire –
staged educational and fun displays about
jobs in engineering today.
Many exhibits were hands-on and
interactive and ranged from touch-screen
computer-aided design software, to remote
operated vehicles for subsea oil and gas
work, robot arms, and even an ingenious
piece of food processing automation – a
rustic potato cleaning machine developed
for a McCain foods’ oven chips TV
commercial.
“Great Britain was built on the engineering
revolution, and still today it’s engineering
prowess that is largely defining the growth
and success of economies and nations,” says
Peter Wilkinson from the lead organiser
Unison Ltd – the Scarborough-based
manufacturer of tube bendingmachines.
“As a country, the UK urgently needs to
invest in engineering, and attracting more
youngsters to enter the profession is critical
to that purpose. This event is about just that
– we set out to show just how interesting
and rewarding engineering is – and it’s
making a big difference in our region.”
Over three days, more than 2,700
schoolchildren and teachers – plus many
more at evening public sessions – toured
the exhibition. Among these was the guest
of honour, HRH Prince Richard The Duke of
Gloucester, representing Queen Elizabeth II.
The Duke has a strong technical
background, having trained as an
architect and worked as a partner in
a London practice before taking up
Royal and family duties. He identified
wholeheartedly with the ambitions of
the event – to attract UK youngsters to
become the engineers of tomorrow – and
said he’d like to come back next year.
As might be expected, he took particular
interest in Atlas Ward Structures’ exhibit
– which demonstrated CAD software
the Scarborough-based company uses
to design steelwork for world-renowned
projects such as The Shard and the Queen
Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Unison led the organisation of this
year’s event. It was aided by the regional
education business partnership NYBEP
which organised the student attendance
from regional primary, secondary, sixth
form and further education schools and
colleges. The event was made possible by
sponsorship from York Potash which wants
to develop a mine in the Scarborough area
to produce potash fertiliser – a large-scale
enterprise which could create hundreds of
high quality engineering jobs.
Schoolchildren were treated to an array
of engineering products and technology
from Atlas Ward Structures, Bluebird
Vehicles, Castle Employment, Castle
Group, Deep Sea Electronics, Dale Power
Solutions, Derwent Training Association,
f1 in Schools, fanuc, festo, firmac,
forum Subsea Technologies, Hunprenco,
Joy Global, McCain foods, Moog, North
Sea Winches, NYBEP, Osprey, Plaxton,
Sainsbury’s, Schneider Electronic, Unison,
University of Hull, University of Sheffield
Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre
(AMRC), Wilfrid Scruton, Yorkshire Coast
College and York Potash.
Some 130 representatives from all of
the organisations involved, as well as
the attending schools and colleges,
attended a celebratory dinner at The
Spa in Scarborough. Adrian Allen OBE, of
the Advanced Manufacturing Research
Centre, gave the keynote speech.
Scarborough EngineeringWeek – UK
Website :
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