The successful national programme, The Secondary Engineer® Fluid Power Challenge, which aims to attract secondary school pupils into engineering is being launched into schools in Cambridgeshire and East Anglia.

The project will run during the 2018 Spring or Summer terms and aims to introduce over 200 14 year olds to the fun and challenge of building a pick and place robot arm using low cost materials and fluid power principles.

Fluid Power Challenge is run by the not-for-profit Primary Engineer Programmes® and is supported by many companies including WEBTEC and Cambridgeshire Hydraulics, as well as numerous trade associations including British Fluid Power Association (BFPA), British Compressed Air Society (BCAS), and Construction Equipment Association (CEA).

The Secondary Engineer® Fluid Power Challenge is a pneumatics and hydraulics systems project which gives schools the opportunity to engage in basic engineering principles and concepts, using readily available materials to design and build working systems. Not only does this support the study of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) in a practical manner but allows pupils and teachers the opportunity to work with engineers in the classroom and compete against teams from other schools.

Teachers from secondary schools in East Anglia area are invited to attend a one-day practical training course, to be hosted by WEBTEC on 6th December at the company’s St Ives manufacturing facility. Engineers from WEBTEC and other local companies will be partnering schools and supporting teachers on the training day and after with pupils in the classroom.

Martin Cuthbert WEBTEC’s Managing Director commented on the project, "the Fluid Power Challenge is well named; this initiative has the power to inspire the engineers of tomorrow, to let children have fun building a real-life robot arm and at the same time connect industry and schools during the learning journey. We are delighted to support the Fluid Power Challenge as we urgently need to attract the next generation of engineers and all credit to the Primary Engineer team for making this possible”.

WEBTEC is dedicated to increasing the knowledge and skills of its employees, customers and the wider community and this latest sponsorship strengthens its commitment to the next generation of engineers along with its support of programmes such as the Arkwright Scholarship Trust and Engineering Education Scheme.

Further information can be found at the Secondary Engineer website

Posted by Webtec

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