At Middlesex Aerospace we continue to be committed to helping students learn about work and their career choices in precision engineering. The options for student today has never been so wide – and competition for the attention of students has never been as fierce.  By providing this helping hand to students, we believe we give an excellent insight into our industry. Our continued support of Basingstoke College of Technology has helped some promising talent take their steps as engineers. And we complement this by visiting schools to gives talks and practical help to the students.

In the last few weeks we have been invited to two local schools to present about careers in engineering and help with advice.

At The Blue Coat School in Basingstoke we were joined by Amy Valles and Jess Payne, both ex-apprentices, to hold a Q&A with students. During the 45-minute sessions we were asked questions on a wide range of topics concerning careers in engineering. The students were also interested to learn about what life was like working in such a varied and demanding environment, where it is important to continually learn and improve your skills every day. To provide a tangible substance to our talks, we brought in a series of components we create within our facilities. These were available for the students to examine and see for themselves the end results of the talented staff we employ.

Our second invitation was to spend two days at Bishop Challoner School. Michael Clarkson went along to give a series of 4 presentations to pupils during the first day. One the second, he undertook mock interviews with students to give them a taste of what to expect when meeting with future potential employers. After each interview Michael offered advice to each student to help them refine and improve their interview technique.

It was a pleasure to be invited to be asked to speak with pupils at the two schools, and we hope they were encouraged by our presentations to look further into the exciting world of precision engineering.