Walsall Engineers, Past, Present, Future

Blackwood School have been successful in gaining a grant of £3,750 from the Institute of Engineering and Technology and the Institute of Mechanical Engineers for our project Walsall Engineers, Past, Present, Future.

The purpose of the project is to promote engineering to primary aged children. I came up with the idea because many Walsall children only see the deprivation of Walsall when shopping in the town centre, they don't see the engineering that takes place in and around the back streets of Walsall.  Also when you ask children what they want to be, their reponse is a reality TV star a vlogger or social media influencer as they earn lots of money.

I wanted to show these children that being an engineer can open many opportunities to them and can be a very well paid job.

Over the summer the children have researched past engineers and engineering in Walsall, looking at the leather trade, structural engineering (T Partridge & Co Limited) , electrical engineering (Crabtree) and foundry works Chamberlin & Hill Casting.

The launch event on Friday 13th September is the 'present' element of our project.  Engineers that either live or work in the Walsall area together with STEM (science, technology, Engineering & Maths) ambassadors  each gave a short presentation to the KS2 chikdren (aged 7-11) about how they became an engineer, what they do as an engineer and any interesting projects they have worked on. We had engineers from the aircraft industry, automotive industry, plumbers, electrical engineers, and even an engineer who makes parts for navy submarines. We had engineers from a range of muticultural backgrounds, social backgrouds, men and women.This is to show anyone can be an engineer!

After school there was exhibition in the school hall where parents and children from our school and St Annes Catholic Primary school were invited to look round the exhibition and learn more about what engineers do. We had engineers from Crabtrees ,J C Payne, Homeserve, Assa Abloy, Concept Education Services, British Engineering Services and IMI and Moog Aircraft Group. We want to thank them all for coming to our event and inspiring the next generation of engineers!