Students from Wey Valley, Budmouth and All Saints schools will go head to head in a Weymouth Rotary Club competition.

The second annual Rotary-organised technology tournament will take place at Budmouth College tomorrow.

The event has been organised by the Rotary Club of Weymouth and has been sponsored by Weymouth-based Sirius Business Systems Ltd.

The purpose of the event is to test teams of four students with an interest in design, technology, engineering and science to design and build a solution to an unseen technical task within a limited period of time.

This tests the communication and organisational skills of the team members.

Students have to be able to show the development of their task solution through a design portfolio.

Each team produces a working model that is then comprehensively tested and assessed by a team of judges. This year’s project will have a space-related theme.

Last year students had to design and test a device for cleaning a pipeline.

Event organiser for Weymouth Rotary Club, Kevin Vincent said: “We want the students to have a memorable, successful and educational day out for those taking part.

“Both the club and our sponsor hope that the event helps nurture an interest in engineering.”

Gary Hepburn, managing director at Sirius, said: “Youngsters are the future, I myself was a youngster once, and I am keen to encourage help and support for them.

“Science and technology skills aren’t fully covered in day to day life.

“I want these youngsters to carry on with education through school, college and into university.

“We want the skills they have learned to be transferable into everyday life.”

The competition has been accredited by the British Science Association to the CREST discovery awards.

The CREST awards scheme is Britain’s largest and most widely recognised national award scheme for project work in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths).