Weymouth College pupils take part in STEM day

Students from the engineering faculty and the college’s A-Level stream took part in a series of workshops run by Poole-based company, Heatric.

Heatric, which is part of Meggitt PLC, is the world’s leading manufacturer of advanced ‘printed circuit’ diffusion-bonded heat exchangers – a device widely used in refrigeration, space heating and sewage treatment.

The workshops allowed students to explore the different ways their knowledge can be employed in the real world, and how to put the equations they had learnt in class into action.

Graeme Furley, engineering training consultant and assessor at Weymouth College, said: “I cannot thank the team from Heatric enough for joining us to deliver this STEM day for our students.

“To put learning into practice and see where that learning can take you – places you may not even have considered – guided by those working every day in a working engineering environment is a rare opportunity.”

Three workshops took place at the college, including a welding workshop where Year 1 and 2 welders were joined with students with no experience to weld mixed thickness stainless steel, a material not usually used at the college.

Another workshop involved sampling the thermal properties of materials, and incorporated a simulation of practical steps involved in preserving an accidentally ‘severed finger’.

Students were introduced to new skills and real-life applications, highlighting potential career options within engineering, which Brian Oman, head of school engineering and automotive studies at the college thought were of ‘extremely high quality’.

He said: “The subjects were relevant to the syllabus at the College, but also reflected what is happening at a cutting-edge company within the diverse range of the Engineering Industry.

“Early indications from the learners were that they had a brilliant experience which has opened their minds to the terrific opportunities open to them in the future as engineers.”