Engineering new opportunities for sixth formers

On Friday 13th March, the Sixth Form were delighted to welcome the Engineers and Apprentices from local engineering firm RWC (based in Yiewsley), who ran an engineering workshop for our Year 12 students who are considering this field for their career.

Barnhill Sixth Form and RWC established a close relationship a few years ago, and ever since RWC have been kind enough to donate us a water fountain for the students to use near the front entrance, plus several monetary donations for our Breakfast Club, so we can purchase food and drink for the students. They have also donated their time and expertise to us, via delivering workshops to our Sixth Form students, by being regular exhibitors at our annual Careers Fair, and offering both work experience placements and apprenticeship places to our former Sixth Form students.

The engineering workshop was delivered to 24 Year 12 students who had chosen to sign up after-school on Friday; they were given a talk on the history of RWC, what they produce and how their apprenticeship programme works; two of their current apprentices also spoke about their experiences so far and why they chose apprenticeships over university places. The students were then split into groups and given some of the products that RWC produce and given the task of building a bridge, which a remote controlled car could be driven over; all groups were given the same parameters in terms of length and width to adhere too, that they must provide a bridge that produces an elevation for the car to go up and down, and they must use one of each kind of technical item they were given from RWC in the construction.

The Year 12 students were given 30 minutes to produce a plan and construct the bridge via the plumbing parts they were given; this meant cutting pipe and using pipe connectors to build their bridge’s undercarriages. Each team produced a unique design, which was then evaluated at the end of the session with a remote-controlled car. The students were given an incredible opportunity to not only work on an engineering problem but to work on the skills needed to become an engineer, such as patience, planning, teamwork, listening, delegating and cooperation. The RWC team were impressed with our Year 12 students for their engagement and enthusiasm within the session and were very complimentary about how they collaborated well with each other.

Engineering is not a career sector that offers a lot of work experiences to our students prior to university, so we are incredibly grateful to RWC for giving up their time to provide our students with such a valuable opportunity; we hope that the workshop may result in more of our students deciding on engineering as a career, that they can pursue both as apprentices at RWC or at university in the future.