A group of our S2 & S3 pupils travelled to Lochside Academy who were hosting a Collaborative project event. The event was organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering Connecting STEM Teachers Programme with activities provided by the Army Outreach Team.

Pupils were involved in the elite skills activities run by the Army where pupils were split up and working with pupils from another two schools. There were various problem solving tasks using there STEM kits.

All pupils were given a careers presentation at the end which highlighted the various career routes in the British Army. They also highlighted how the skills they had used during the activities can be used more widely.

Our Young Engineers Club visited Bristow Helicopters on Friday 27^th
May after winning this as their prize at the recent Celebration of STEM at
Aberdeen Science Centre. The Team had eagerly awaited their visit – they did a
great job with the Bristow challenge and were keen and engaged
throughout. 

We were also given an additional four spaces to encourage more girls to look
at this as an career option. At present only 5% of all trainees in those Pilot
and Engineering disciplines are female and Bristow’s are focussed on improving
this.  

A fantastic day was set up for the pupils by Bristows!

The group had the opportunity to fly and take controls and experience what it’s
like to fly an offshore helicopter in one of Bristow’s multi-million dollar,
state of the art, helicopter simulators, instructed by one of their pilots. They
also had the opportunity to speak to one of the SAR pilots from Prestwick and
were given an overview of the various ways to get into this as a career. The
group also heard from the engineering team on the way to get into and to become
a certified helicopter engineer and the various apprenticeship and cadetships Bristow
offer.

After Lunch they had a tour of the Flight Operations area where they were
shown how their pilots carried out flight planning and briefings as well as
being able to speak to them about their career choice. The pupils then had a
tour of the Helicopter Maintenance hangar where pupils could see the work the
engineers carry out on the aircraft, and see them close up and were able to
speak directly to the engineers.

The group were then thanked by the Director of UK operations on completion of
the visit.

A fantastic day and many thanks to all who facilitated the visit.