Julian Hewitt, a Tiffin student, recently benefited from a unique hands-on learning experience at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. This four-day residential programme was organised by The Smallpeice Trust to engage students and provide them with the opportunity to learn about engineering through a series of presentations and practical hands-on workshops.

In teams the students worked on ‘real-life’ challenges organised by Babcock, BAE Systems and National Nuclear Laboratories. The challenges included three different design and make projects to build a caisson, submarine, and a model car powered by CO². As well as working on the design, build and test elements of the projects, the students developed life skills such as team work, communication, problem solving, time management, finance and presentations.

Spokesperson Gemma Murphy from the Trust commented “The feedback from the pupils involved has been excellent and we hope this experience will have encouraged them to take up engineering as a future career.”

Founded by Dr Cosby Smallpeice in 1966, the Trust has grown tremendously over the past 44 years, helping thousands of young people find a successful career in a multitude of disciplines within the industry from marine technology, naval architecture, and power engineering, to engineering materials, sustainable energy, and electronics. Over the last year, over 16,000 students have attended a Smallpeice Trust activity.