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Technip Supports the ‘Engineers ‘n’ our lives’ project

Leading subsea contractor Technip is supporting the engineers of tomorrow through delivery of a four week ‘hands on’ project for more than 1,000 primary school pupils in the Westhill area.

The ‘Engineer ‘n’ our lives’ project, developed and facilitated by Live Wire Productions and TechFest-SetPoint – sees pupils from four local primary schools, Elrick, Crombie, Skene and Westhill – take part in a materials based challenge looking at the role of engineers to produce everyday products.

Over the four weeks in January all age groups in each school will complete a design, properties, prototype and process challenge using chairs, toys, vending machines and sweet factories amongst their many engineered products.

The results will be show cased at a celebration event on the Friday of each week in the company of Technip employees and teachers. Each pupil will stand up and demonstrate all the different ways they have thought, created and worked by themselves and in teams through the week being engineers.

Bill Morrice, managing director Technip UK, said: “How many of us ever stop to think about the engineers behind what we see, use, eat and have in our homes? Every product has been produced by an engineer of some sort and we are aiming to bring a flavour of engineering to every primary school pupil in the area. All youngsters have the potential to be involved in engineering and by bringing these challenges into schools we are hopefully ‘demystifying’ the discipline and opening up the possibility to young minds.”

Bill added: “Technip actively engages with the local community and has a long history of working with the next generation of talent. We hope this fun and focused programme will help give young people a flavour of the engineering sector as they become the engineers for a week.”

Vanessa Chew, chief executive of Live Wire Productions said: “We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to design and develop this innovative, comprehensive, fun “Engineer ’n’ our lives” project.

“TechFest-SetPoint and Live Wire Productions are grateful to Technip for sponsoring this programme. It is exciting watching everyone taking part, actively engaging their maths, language, science, drama, creative thinking, and artistic skills as they complete each of the challenges.’’

Cllr Richard Stroud, chairman of Aberdeenshire Council’s Education, Learning and Leisure Committee, said: “Westhill is well-known as a global base for industry, and this scheme could inspire the young people of the town to form part of the next generation of skilled engineers serving the area.

“This scheme is a great opportunity for pupils to have a hands-on experience of the engineering process and take part in an exciting challenge.”

Fiona Lavery, Westhill Primary School head teacher, added: “The ‘Engineer ‘n’ our lives’ programme is a fantastic way of introducing engineering into the curriculum using core subjects. It prompts the youngsters to think differently about the objects they come into contact with on a daily basis and consider where they came from. “Bringing this programme to 1,000 school pupils in the Westhill area in just one month is incredible and will really open up their young minds while also allowing them to become the engineers for a week.”

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