Engineering stars of the future!

Kennet School students won this year’s AWE Girls in Engineering Challenge, narrowly beating last year’s winners, Little Heath School, into second place.

Organised by AWE apprentices, the student teams had to tackle not one, but three, engineering-based challenges – involving a parachute, a marble run and a constructing a tower.

Teams were tested on their problem-solving, team-working, timekeeping and creative thinking, all key principles of engineering.

The triumphant Kennet team won £500 and a trophy, for their school plus individual prizes. Students also visited a table top exhibition, where AWE apprentices displayed some of the work they had created, to learn more about apprenticeship opportunities.

Students heard from Marcus Hutchings, head of AWE’s Skills Academy, head of Electronics Kerry Barker and AWE graduate Bev. Kerry, a former AWE apprentice herself, talked about her journey from apprentice to senior manager, while Bev told students that she hadn’t chosen the traditional route to university, instead teaching herself at home for a while before progressing onto the graduate scheme at AWE.