Forget freshers’ fairs. For Prospect member Tina Brinkworth, who works at Babcock’s Devonport shipyard the key to addressing the shortfall in skilled engineers in the long-term is to get children interested when they are at primary school

With a background in mechanical engineering, Tina has worked at Plymouth’s Devonport shipyard for 28 years.

For the past year she has been tasked with building an outreach programme to grow the future STEM (Science, Technology, Maths and Science) talent pool in the south-west.

Tina explains:

We have special relationships established with 12 local schools now, five are secondary schools and the rest are primary schools. For me that’s where we need to start our work, as many secondary school students already have an idea of what they want to do.”

Activities Tina and her team of 250 STEM “ambassadors” organise include building and racing fan-powered boats and “monster brushes”, which incorporate simple electric circuits, as well as using recycled materials to build “balloon hovercraft” and “CD racing cars”.

The students absolutely love it, it’s hands on, it’s engaging and then by stealth they’re learning about all these forces and outcomes... the teachers get involved and really enjoy themselves as well.”

In secondary schools, a key aim is to encourage students to take STEM qualifications and then to keep them engaged. This involves a dialogue around STEM offering a pathway to rewarding, well-paid jobs with students, teachers and parents.

Tina and her Babcock team also work with schools to set up STEM clubs around the city, which are then supported to put forward entries into national competitions such as Big Bang.

But that’s not all, adds Tina:

Last year we hosted 15 teacher placements, and I think these are incredibly important because teachers tend to go straight from education back into education and they tend to lack industry experience. They come in and meet apprentices and graduates and for the first time they probably see the diversity of engineering. I still think there’s a perception that an engineer’s a guy wielding a spanner.”

Tina is also hoping to address the issue of the under representation of women in STEM by organising “mum and daughter” evenings featuring a quiz aimed at breaking down gender stereotypes.

The outreach programme has already scored a number of notable successes in its first year. One school saw a 50% increase in the number of children interested in STEM employment in the first year as well as tripling the number of girls taking physics. The same school also doubled its science exam pass rates.

As to the future, Tina is hoping to see other Babcock sites adopt the outreach model with a “best practice” group now set up, as well as expanding the scheme locally in the south west.

To that end – and having witnessed the company’s work first hand – Prospect is now helping to bolster Babcock’s work with STEM clubs by purchasing equipment, including a 3D printer and technical “Mindstorms” Lego kits.

Tina concludes:

For me it’s about working in collaboration...trying to get other organisations involved in STEM outreach because collectively we can deliver more, more effectively.”