British Science Week is an annual event specifically intended to inspire youngsters in the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). This year, events were held up and down the country from the 6th to 15th March, where kids took part in activities designed to spark their interest in subjects that will hopefully shape many of their careers in the future.
At Taylor and Fraser, we want to attract good quality people to the business, and we do whatever we can to support personal development and training in the workplace. However, during British Science Week, we stepped out of our normal workplace training environment into the classroom to meet some kids, many of whom we hope will become engineers in the future. We firmly believe that encouragement from a young age will help to ensure our sector attracts a good proportion of people who want a career path in engineering or construction.
For this reason, we were delighted to be invited to St Monica’s Primary School in Pollok during British Science Week to speak to some of the classes, where the pupils proved to be enthusiastic and willingly engaged with our Contracts Engineer, Eddie Watson.
Speaking afterwards about the visit, St Monica’s Principal Teacher, Mrs Emma White, commented, “The pupils in P2a, P2b and P3b thoroughly enjoyed having Mr Watson visit yesterday and enjoyed hearing about his day-to-day role as an electrical engineer and the ways in which sustainable energy is being encouraged.
“Mr Watson was amazing with the children! He told them lots of interesting facts about his job, and the children loved using the different measuring tools to complete the activity that Mr Watson had prepared.
“They also loved learning about his role at Taylor and Fraser and how he uses STEM on a daily basis. Having an opportunity to carry out some STEM-based activities was fantastic, and the children were so motivated to learn and to develop new skills. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences!”
On a similar vein, Bryan Hunter our Framework Manager at University of Glasgow along with Paul Tierney and Calum Barr from our BIM Team took part in a STEM Fair at Robert Burns Academy in Cumnock, Ayrshire last week. Over 300 pupils attended 11 workshops hosted throughout the day. Once again, we were delighted by the response from the pupils, who were keen to learn more about the work we do at Taylor and Fraser.
Speaking about our contribution, Bradley Mackie, Teacher of Biology and Science said: “The Taylor and Fraser team delivered an engaging presentation about the company’s place in the construction industry and the projects they have been or are involved in. A structure-building activity for the remainder of the session followed this. Your team were amazing and very engaged with the kids. They also answered lots of questions and spoke at length to kids who showed particular interest.
“Thanks again for your support!”
We are delighted that the children enjoyed the sessions. We consider these events to be an essential element in building a strong talent pipeline for the future. Whether they eventually come to Taylor and Fraser or not, it is important that engineering is presented as an exciting sector to work in, and that they appreciate why STEM is an essential part of their education.
Blow are some pictures from the session at St Monica’s Primary School.
