Our graduate and apprentice teams at Roxel UK had a brilliant time organising and facilitating the inaugural Midlands Flying Start Challenge (FSC) for pupils at Tudor Grange Academy Worcester, earlier this year.
The dedicated team of Roxel UK mentors ran workshops and supported the children as they designed and built their gliders, introducing them to the exciting world of engineering. The challenge is for teams of up to four children to design and build a hand-launched glider to fly as far as possible with a payload. The first half of the day involved several talks from members of Roxel UK who shared their experiences of STEM. During the second part of the day, the students got involved in the Bottle Rocket Challenge before it was time for poster presentations and glider fly-offs.
The Flying Start Challenge is a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) initiative that aims to inspire students aged 11 to 14 to explore the field of flight and aerospace. The FSC has been run for over a decade, initially by aerospace engineering companies within the Southwest of England.
Students design, build and test hand-propelled model glider, creating presentations that explain the engineering decisions they have made over the course of their glider build. Each year, the contest proceeds through local Regional Finals for the Bristol, Gloucester and Yeovil regions, culminating in a Grand Final in Bristol.
Headteacher of Tudor Grange Academy Worcester commented: “Thank you so much to the team at Roxel UK who volunteered their time and expertise to guide and encourage the children throughout the day. It’s certainly given the students food for thought by visiting their offices, and witness firsthand how STEM education can translate into satisfying, meaningful, paid employment. This is a great example of how to truly inspire the next generation in terms of engineering careers.”
Simran Khinda, Roxel UK Graduate and Flying Start Challenge project manager, said: “We’re proud to support this initiative, for the first year in the Midlands, delivered in partnership with the Royal Aeronautical Society, and to help spark curiosity and confidence in young minds. The Flying Start Challenge is a hands-on, experiential engineering competition that visibly helps students develop essential STEM skills and discover the many career opportunities the industry has to offer. We hope we have given them some inspiration and can’t wait for next year.”
Roxel UK has a strong background in hiring graduates and apprentices, in the last year alone having welcomed six graduates and also one of their many apprentices having won twice at the recent Worcestershire Apprenticeship Awards.
For more information on career choices for graduates and apprentices, visit our website https://www.roxelgroup.com/en/career-employment-roxel-uk, or to find out more about Flying Start Challenge UK please call Roxel UK Head Office on 01562 824061.