Gabriella English - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

 After the success of last year's Virtual Research Placements we decided to run it again in 2021! 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Gabriella has been up to so far! 

Week One:

"I was very happy to be allowed to work on this project and everyone from L&G was very welcoming and accommodating. Even when issues arose, like how L&G would share with us the recording of the meetings, they worked hard to give us access to them. Everyone on the board was also very active and attentive in answering questions and giving feedback and supported us massively in producing the work that was required." 

- Gabriella English

Jackson Taylor - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

 After the success of last year's Virtual Research Placements we decided to run it again in 2021! 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Jackson has been up to so far! 

Week One:

"I was very happy to be allowed to work on this project and everyone from L&G was very welcoming and accommodating. Even when issues arose, like how L&G would share with us the recording of the meetings, they worked hard to give us access to them. Everyone on the board was also very active and attentive in answering questions and giving feedback and supported us massively in producing the work that was required." 

- Jackson Taylor

 

Working with the Surrey Wildlife Trust was an amazing experience for me. This research project I carried out on the 'Barriers to Nature Engagement in Young People' was an eye-opener towards finding the solutions that can solve local problems and the lack of engagement we currently face in society. The staff members of the Surrey Wildlife Trust, continuously gave me guidance and advice to carry out all the research necessary to make this project successful. As a result, this project received a CREST Gold Award and it is thanks to SWT for giving me this opportunity and always helping  and communicating with me throughout!

Priya Patel - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

 

   After the success of last year's Virtual Research Placements we decided to run it again in 2021! 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Priya has been up to so far! 

Week One:

 'Working with the Surrey Wildlife Trust was an amazing experience for me. This research project I carried out on the 'Barriers to Nature Engagement in Young People' was an eye-opener towards finding the solutions that can solve local problems and the lack of engagement we currently face in society. The staff members of the Surrey Wildlife Trust, continuously gave me guidance and advice to carry out all the research necessary to make this project successful. As a result, this project received a CREST Gold Award and it is thanks to SWT for giving me this opportunity and always helping  and communicating with me throughout!"

                                                                                                                                - Priya Patel

Isabel King - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

 

   After the success of last year's Virtual Research Placements we decided to run it again in 2021! 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Isabel has been up to so far! 

Week One:

"On the 26^th of July, I began my two-week remote work placement with the Surrey Ion Beam Centre through SATRO. The aim of the project was to produce a video storyboard and poster based on the ion beam analysis techniques available at the Surrey Ion Beam Centre. The video storyboard would consist of a voice-over, images and then an explanation of how the images are to be animated. The storyboard could then be turned into a video by a professional company and used as publicity for the Surrey Ion Beam Centre. My target audience was other A-Level students studying STEM subjects.

 After the first week, I was required to do a mid-work presentation covering: why I had chosen my topic, my plan, review of the first week (was I on track?) and my next steps. At the end of the two weeks, I presented my poster and storyboard to fellow students and supervisors on the placement.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and found I improved and gained skills in lots of new areas, including summarising difficult concepts simply and in my own words, and the ability to use keywords to search for relevant information and papers. I also gained skills in using Paint (a software that I had not previously used) and using PowerPoint’s drawing tools. Doing two presentations of my work also further improved my presentation skills and the clarity of my explanations.

I had a virtual meeting each morning with my mentor which was really helpful for any questions I had and to give me guidance, especially at the start of the project.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my remote work placement and would like to thank the Surrey Ion Beam Centre, Pierre Couture (my mentor) and SATRO for giving me the opportunity!"

- Isabel King

Nya-Therese Halliday - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Nya-Therese has been up to so far! 

Week One

"I chose to research the question what is the truth and consequences behind the MMR vaccine and autism scandal? I decided to explore this title because when I was undergoing my research about Wakefield’s hypothesis regarding the MMR vaccine and its potential link with autism, numerous issues regarding Wakefield’s research appeared and the consequences of his proposed hypothesis to society. This for me made it a very interesting project to write about because I was able to incorporate several ideas into my dissertation and develop a greater breadth of knowledge about the truth behind Andrew Wakefield, undercovering his true intentions.

 

The methods of working I have found successful have been gathering all of my research, writing a first draft and then further researching specific areas that perhaps lacked in detail and cohesion or possible questions that had arisen. Using this information, I then went on to write a second draft and repeated this process until I was happy with the result. I struggling slightly on developing a clear and concise structure, that flowed logically. It took me a few drafts to perfect this and for me to be satisfied, but I am happy with the end result.

 

I have absolutely loved and I am incredibly lucky to have been given this opportunity to research thoroughly a topic I am passionate about and have curiosities in learning more about. I am excited to building on this and pursuing a deeper understanding about this subject." 

- Nya-Therese Halliday 

Anja Salta - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

 

In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Anja has been up to so far! 

Week One

"I have always been curious about what will happen in the future and how our actions will shape what it looks like. It’s why I choose to do ‘How to sustainably provide food for 9 billion people’. When I saw this question I was immediately drawn to it as it made me really think about possible solutions. I had a couple of thoughts in my head about what can be done so I did the research to see if they were viable options and to see if there were better solutions.

It was easy to find information on this topic as it is seen as a pressing issue that needs to be addressed quickly in order to solve it. It took a little while to be able to pick and choose what I thought was the most important factors and then put them into categories, but I eventually got there. Now all I have left to do is finish writing my findings."

- Anja Salta

Angela Avramovska - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

 

In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Angela has been up to so far! 

 Week One

"I chose the chemistry question- ‘How can catalysts improve our lives in the 21st century?’. One of the reasons as to why I chose to research this is because I wanted to widen my knowledge about ways in which catalysts can benefit us, beyond what was taught at school. As there are many challenges that we have to face in the 21st century, some of those being climate change, storage for energy and an increase demand for food, searching for potential ways in which catalysts can help tackle these interested me.

I started off my research by going over the basics of catalysts and the different types- heterogeneous and homogeneous. I then looked into the history of catalysts, how they have been developed, by who and how they have been benefiting the world in the past. My focus then shifted to the current uses, that being the infamous Haber-Bosch process and catalytic converters in cars. I also looked at the overall advantages of catalysts that have and still are improving our lives. It was challenging to find how catalysts can further benefit us as they already do so in many different areas. However, reading articles and looking at interviews from professors and scientists have helped me gain knowledge on current research that is going on. This then allowed me to discover new ways on how the development of catalysts can improve our lives. I gathered further understanding on making biofuels from waste materials, with the help of microorganism-derived catalysts as well as storage of energy from renewable resources, which I will be looking more into. So far, I have really enjoyed the research as I was able to delve into new information and find discoveries that are of a great interest of mine."

- Angela Avramovska 

Siobhan Wilkins - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

 

In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Siobhan has been up to so far! 

 Week One

"When we consider the role of catalysts at GCSE and even A level, we rarely look beyond the role of enzymes in biological reactions, the Haber Process and it’s contribution to producing fertilisers to increase food production, and possibly at a push the role of catalysts within organic chemistry. We often gloss over them with the simple acknowledgement that they speed up reactions by lowering the activation energy without being used up themselves and are that they are often transition metals due to their variable oxidation states. Whilst these basic ideas are a useful starting point, I decided to undertake this project on the role of catalysts in the 21st century to improve lives as I wanted to explore their increasing importance particularly for the storage of renewable energy, conversion of carbon dioxide and food production in a climate where we need to focus on making processes financially and environmentally viable in the long term.

I have begun my research initially on areas of science where catalysts are already being used, and the properties of an effective catalyst to give me a grounding to then look at more complex uses that are even more relevant to the 21st century. For example, catalysts need to be able to adsorb reactants strongly enough that catalysis can occur, but not too strongly that they cannot break away afterwards, as well as being cheap and in plentiful supply to make their use beneficial. This has led me to explore new discoveries such as Spinel Oxides, which could help to decrease carbon dioxide emissions by catalysing water electrolysis rather than having to use lots of fossil fuels to provide fuel to extract the hydrogen, and this is something that I intend to focus on in my essay. I have been using a mixture of open access journals on the internet and the Royal Society of Chemistry’s website, as it is easy to navigate by keyword, and I have been able to find the most up to date discoveries in the field of catalysis, which is an essential in this project to maintain a focus on the future uses of catalysts. I also have found a thought-provoking article on transferring the principle of crop rotation to catalysis, and how a rotation of chemical reactions could regenerate the catalyst without having to heat them or use oxygen and hydrogen, which is very relevant to my future aspirations of studying biochemistry at university, as it shows just one of the many interdisciplinary links between Biology and Chemistry.

As I now start to write out my essay and prepare my poster/presentation, one of the main challenges is being selective with the information I choose to discuss, as well as ensuring I only use sources I fully understand, otherwise the way I communicate my ideas will not be authentic and accurate. This is always a challenge in terms of scientific research at this stage, as when searching the internet the breadth of information available isn’t always filtered to the level of knowledge you have, but using the Royal Society of Chemistry has definitely helped resolve this problem to a large extent, as their articles are intended to be accessible for a wider audience rather than university graduates. I am enjoying the research process, particularly having more freedom to explore discoveries that interest me than I would in my studies at school, especially as with an open-ended question like this. Once you start finding information, your whole perspective of the question may change and you may decide to explore a new line of argument, in the same way that I started out thinking about possibly looking at the role of catalysts in mass production of medicines, but now want to focus on applications in ‘green chemistry'." 

- Siobhan Wilkins

Annabel Stork - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

 

In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Annabel has been up to so far! 

 Week One

"I chose to research ‘How will quantum computing change our society?’, one of the physics questions. I chose this title for numerous reasons, one of them being that I my knowledge on quantum computers was relatively limited before I started my research. Another reason being that recently quantum computers have been in the news and there’s lots of stigma about if quantum computers will be able to breach our security, for example banking information. I wanted to know if any of these stigmas were true and if we should be worried. Moreover, the quantum world is deeply fascinating. 

So far my research has been progressing along steadily. At first I found it useful to understand what a quantum computer is and how they work. After securing a basic knowledge of the mechanics behind the machines, I delved into how they could be utilised in society. The internet of course has been exceptionally useful, filled with YouTube videos and articles, although to progress my research further I need to start looking at recently published papers in scientific journals. I have thoroughly enjoyed my research thus far and am looking forward to learning more."

- Annabel Stork 

Bethany Sewell - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Bethany has been up to so far! 

 Week One

"For this project I have chosen the ‘Chemistry’ question which asks for research on how catalysts can help improve our lives in the 21^st century. I was eager to expand my knowledge on this particular topic as I am interested in the past research and how it influences continued research for future generations and how previous discoveries benefit humankind for many years. I am also passionate about chemistry and I am looking to do a science degree at university. Unsure of what degree to do, I thought I would take this opportunity to explore chemistry in detail to aid my decision.

To begin with, I looked at the first catalysts to be created and the different types of catalysts, homogeneous and heterogeneous. After absorbing the basic knowledge, I went on to look at how catalysts have already been benefiting us. For example, platinum, palladium and rhodium act as heterogeneous catalysts for changing poisonous molecules such as carbon monoxide to more harmless molecules such as carbon dioxide and water vapour. Whilst finding heaps of information on catalysts, what I am finding challenging is gaining insight on how they can help improve our lives in the 21^st century, additional to ways that they do already. To help with this I have looked into current research and new research for ideas of potential uses for catalysts. I am excited to continue my research and further strengthen my understanding on catalysts and their uses."

- Bethany Sewell 

Micah Adetola - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

                                         

In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Micah has been up to so far! 

 Week One

"I chose the Chemistry option and have looked into how catalysts can improve our life in the 21st century. This question choice interested me the most because catalysts are essential to life. They are present in detergents, used in industry and even in our bodies in the form of enzymes. I wanted to extend my knowledge further to discover some of the more unconventional uses of catalysts and even see if I could imagine how catalysts may be used to benefit future societies beyond our current generation. I also liked this question as it allows me to draw on biological knowledge despite it being a Chemistry question.

My research has primarily been focused on the present use of catalysts, such as in the well-known Haber process. I have also looked briefly into the historical uses of catalysts. However, most of my research has been centred around the current use of enzymes, especially in healthcare.

I have found it challenging to think outside the box and imagine new uses of catalysts, but I have had some interesting ideas, such as using enzymes to interfere with biological processes to delay human ageing. I would also like to extend my research further to include uses of catalysts in other areas of society, such as in improving the environment."

- Micah Adetola 

Sarah Matthews - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Sarah has been up to so far! 

 Week One

"I have been researching the idea that ordinary items could lead to the next big scientific discovery. I chose this topic as I am very interested in the chemical composition of materials, and how physical properties arise - this topic allows me to research this idea, and extend this further by thinking about instances where these properties could be used. Overall, the task has been going well - I have looked into a broad range of everyday materials and their properties, and how these properties could best be harnessed. Nevertheless, I have found it difficult to decide on a particular material to base my project on, and to think creatively about possible uses."

- Sarah Matthews 

Lola Bell - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

  In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Lola has been up to so far! 

 Week One

"I have been researching a ‘Medicine’ question, which focuses on the role of ordinary items in being the next scientific breakthrough, as well as what it takes for these breakthroughs to happen. I chose this question as I am particularly interested in biochemistry and the molecular basis of disease and thought it would be interesting to research how objects could be manipulated for use in treatments. 

Initially, I have been looking at past discoveries, with a particular interest in the idea of repurposing existing organisms for medical uses, such as Crispr-cas9 stemming from the existing bacterial immune response against viruses or the discovery of Penicillin. This initial research on how these breakthroughs occur is going well, although when thinking of my own idea for a possible use of an existing item, I found it difficult. To help with this, I have been looking at practical problems in medicine that could be targeted with an ordinary object, such as more effective drug delivery systems. This led me to look at a whole variety of areas, from the use of jelly as a vehicle for drugs to  magnetic bacteria being able to deliver molecules to a specific area by an external magnetic control. I have enjoyed the experience so far and am excited to see where the project will take me next." 

- Lola Bell

Daniel Wilcox - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

 In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Daniel has been up to so far! 

 Week One

"So far, I have done lots of research on Moore’s law, transistor’s and their purpose in computers, and other relevant information. I have around 6-7 relevant sources, all found through Google Scholar so they are credible and citable. I have compiled all the notes and information I have gathered in OneNote, as well as made outlines for my document itself as well as the slideshow. Overall, I have done pretty much all the research and planning, and am now preparing to make the slideshow and document itself.

What’s working well: ideas and planning. I know what I want to talk about, have relevant information, and how my final product will look.

What needs more work: actually starting the final product. I’m still trying to figure out how I want to write everything and organise my thoughts directly on page, instead of just a detailed outline.

What influenced question choice: I am very interested in computer science and learning more about the relationship between hardware and software is very interesting to me. (That and I knew Quantum Computing would be popular and thought the judges would get tired of that subject after too many projects)."

- Daniel Wilcox 

Taha Hussain - Summer STEM Virtual Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

In April SATRO took the unprecedented (and sad) decision to suspend the Research Programme for this year due to COVID-19. We asked all our providers for a 'day in the life of' summaries to give the students a flavour of the many types of roles that are available in the professional environments. 

Following SATRO's hard work to develop an online policy. In May, we reached out to our wonderful providers to propose a virtual solution and to get around any social distancing rules. The response was amazing. We asked for suitable titles that the students could research over the summer and devise a short essay and either a PP or a poster with their findings. 

All students have been asked to provide a weekly update on their experience - please see below to see what Taha has been up to so far! 

 Week One 

"It has been a great experience so far. I have decided to do my research on Silica beads for TL dosimeters over the photon dose range commonly applied in radiotherapy. I have researched into this before so finding research articles was not an issue. My dream job is radiography and so This question that I am doing now is solely influenced by my dream occupation."

- Taha Hussain 

Fahez Siddiqi - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves! 

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

See how Fahez is getting on with their STEM placement! 

Week One 

"During the week, I was placed in the asset management division of Jacobs which helps maintain assets for other companies. These assets could be flooded defences, railway lines or anything else. During the week I was tasked with researching and presenting a PowerPoint on the TEAM2100 project which aims to maintain and improve flood risk management assets for the environment agency until the end of the century. On top of this, I created the interactive section for a training programme on asset management for South East water. Additionally, I was able to go to the TEAM2100 office where I was able to meet senior engineers working on the project as well as some others." 

- Fahez Siddiqi 

Shaheen Amin - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves! 

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

See how Shaheen is getting on with their STEM placement! 

Week One 

"The first couple of days involved me getting to know my supervisor, Stephen Webb, and setting up my laptop to begin doing some work. On the third day, I met with a woman, Christina, who needed a webscraping program to fill out a CSV for her team - doing this manually would take hours upon hours, and therefore I spent the next two days learning how to webscrape and making the program. I learnt the basics of webscraping within a few hours, and within three days, I finished a prototype and emailed it back to her, and then two days later, I created a final version with a GUI that could be run on any Windows machine with Python installed. My program can complete 100 rows in two minutes, where it would have taken hours by hand. 

I am now working on a program to process language and the overall sentiment within it, as well as data analysis." 

Week Two 

"This week, I developed a program which captures random tweets from Twitter, and analyses the text within them to understand the overall sentiment/feeling within the tweet, allowing us to do keyword searches to understand how the public feel towards certain topics. All this information is stored within a database, allowing other programs and services to access it and process the data as they wish. The location of where each tweet was sent to is also recorded in the form of Latitude and Longitudes to enable us to plot the tweets on a map and observe what certain countries feel towards a certain topic." 

Week Three 

"In my final week, I was tasked to use a program called Microsoft PowerBi to display the data obtained from the sentiment analysis in a visual way, as well as research its strengths and weaknesses for data visualisation. I also tidied up my old code (I had to remove the location data attached attached with the Tweets as it is against the developer terms of service for Twitter), and I also spent a day in the building services engineering department of Jacobs where I had a few one to one sessions with experts in Electrical, Mechanical and Sustainability Engineering. 

Overall, this placement has been an amazing experience and I am very thankful to everyone who has helped me along the way." 

- Shaheen Amin 

Inspiring Young People Into STEM - Why Is It Important?

 

About Victoria Allan:

Organisation: CNOOC International
Your Profession: Graduate Mechanical Engineer
About Yourself: I graduated in 2017 with a MEng in Mechanical and Offshore Engineering. So far with CNOOC, I have worked with the Facilities Engineering Team, and as the Hydrocarbon Release Prevention Focal Point. Shortly, I will be working offshore on Golden Eagle as the Offshore Operations Engineer (OOE). 
Your LinkedIn Profile: Victoria Allan


Tell us why you think it is important in today's world, to inspire young people into STEM and where applicable, why you and or your organisation gets involved and what you get out of it. 


"I think it is important to inspire young people into STEM as ultimately, they are the future and will have to solve problems using Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Ensuring young people have the knowledge to understand our business is key to securing the future of the energy industry in which our workforce will play such an important role. Getting young minds involved from as young as possible will be invaluable to solving some of the bigger problems that we will face. 

CNOOC International actively encourages STEM Ambassadors to get involved in local communities through our outreach education and by inviting local schools in to our offices to learn more about our operations. 

It is brilliant to see the excitement and enthusiasm from the young people and to have the chance to share our knowledge with them at a young age. Hopefully, what we're doing now will inspire them to choose a career in STEM and be part of shaping the world they and their children will inhabit in the future."


In relation to the above question, in your experience, what is getting better or worse and what in your view, are the barriers to sustained success and what do you see as the best way forward? 

"Challenges still exist in promoting STEM careers to young people. I think one of the most important things to do is excite young people about the real-world applications for STEM subjects as well as to highlight just how many career options there are. 

There are also many paths into STEM careers, from apprenticeships that include practical and classroom-based learning to university degrees for a more academic route into the field. 

I also think it's important to encourage young girls, early in their educational career, to get stuck into STEM subjects. 

For me, the best way forward is to continue to have conversations with young people about STEM, get out in to our communities and show them their options as to what they could get involved with. I think the most important thing is to remember how diverse young people can be and to remember that when explaining potential STEM careers to them and show how many ways there are to get involved rather than simply the more traditional routes." 

- Victoria Allan

Inspiring Young People Into STEM - Why Is It Important?

About Simon Ash 

Organisation: Guildford Borough Council 
Your Profession: Economic Development Officer 
About Yourself: 14 years in banking, 12 years of running small businesses and 6 months fundraising led to a stimulating new role in economic development for Guildford Borough Council, which encompasses a huge range of activity from town centre management to skills development and strategic planning. 
Your LinkedIn Profile: Simon Ash
Your Twitter handle: @SimonAsh6


Tell us why you think it is important in today's world, to inspire young people into STEM and where applicable, why you and or your organisation gets involved and what you get out of it. 

"There is no area of life untouched by STEM: if you do life, you do science! The best preparation for success is understanding the role of creative thinking and challenging received opinion. A young person who resists being categorised will not be limited by conventional roles and opportunities. 

In Guildford, we value the culture of creativity that is reflected across the spectrum of STEM-related organisations, from digital arts to medical research. We also enjoy a great reputation in the creative arts, and believe in breaking down barriers between what have conventionally been two distinct worlds. A computer game developer, for example, might be both highly artistic and technically expert. 

Co-operation across and between industries is the key to unlocking opportunity, and being ready to think differently is critical. 

Guildford Borough Council's work in encouraging STEM awareness forms part of a skills agenda, responding to future challenges in a high-skill economy, and maintaining Guildford's success in a highly competitive environment. 

Starting with the Innovate Guildford Science and Arts Festival (running annually since 2016) to engage young people with possibilities for their future. In 2017, Guildford Borough Council also introduced the Innovation Awards to celebrate the borough's best innovations.

We aim to support improved work experience options, and champion employment-based training including apprenticeships. We have recently undertaken a Skills Survey of local businesses with the aim of exploring issues facing employers and informing our conversations with educators including schools, colleges and universities. We are looking at how an Education Business Partnership might complement the work of other groups including the Surrey Employment Skills Board and the Local Enterprise Partnership's Enterprise Adviser network, as well as SATRO of course."

In relation to the above question, in your experience, what is getting better or worse and what in your view, are the barriers to sustained success and what do you see as the best way forward? 

"In no particular order, I see the following as putting STEM skills development under pressure: 

• Crowded Curriculum 
• Education Funding 
• Lack of apparent long-term strategic investment and vision 
• Strong focus on examination success above practical skills and a balanced education 

However, the following opportunities show promise for the future if captured and exploited: 

• Apprenticeship expansion (levy-funded) and available at multiple levels including in some non-traditional industries 
• Education Business Partnerships to help align educational offering and employment needs 
• More focused work experience options to benefit the particular interest of students 
• An expansion of mentoring and other meaningful interactions between school students and entrepreneurs/business people 

- Simon Ash, Guildford Borough Council