Careers in Engineering can lead to global travel!

International travel is clearly one of the fantastic benefits of a career in engineering as students found out when OWs returned to WGS to share their experiences of working in the field of engineering. Most of our returning OWs were employed by global companies which had led them to opportunities to work with teams in other countries, as well as visiting overseas branches. There was high praise for university courses offering a year in industry, as not only does it give real-world experience, but it also offers an early insight into the many different engineering roles available.

Mitchell (OW 2018) is currently studying his second masters degree sponsored by his university whilst working for them as a technician. He shared that Harper Adams University arranges industrial placements for 100% of its students and advised those attending to consider this as one of the key elements that they might look for when choosing an engineering degree course.

Anna and Fran were both Arkwright Scholars during their time at WGS, which meant that they had an early experience in industry, giving them a head start in their careers. Anna (OW 2018) has returned to Worcester Bosch with whom she was partnered with by the Arkwright programme, and she is now a product engineer for HIUs working with a team in Germany.

Encouraging students to apply for an Arkwright Scholarship and to participate in the Industrial Cadets Programme has ensured that Design & Technology has come alive as a subject for A Level students at WGS. Students can challenge themselves with solving a ‘live’ problem and developing a working prototype for a commercial business. Our most recent cohort have recently worked on a prototype for a new test chamber for HS Marston Aerospace’s dry matrix test stack and they were invited to present their findings to the CEO.

Our six returning OWs were able to speak from a diverse background in engineering as well as sharing the perspective of being a female in what is still quite a heavily male-dominated workplace. Anna says of her experience that although her degree course was a fairly even split of 60:40, she is still only one of three females in a team of 50 engineers. Nevertheless, she sees this as an opportunity rather than a disadvantage. Anna was full of praise for the warm welcome and respect given to her by her colleagues and loves her career in engineering. 

37 WGS GCSE and A Level D&T students were joined by 40 Year 11 students from St Edmund’s School and 13 Year 10s from Beacon Hill Academy for the event which was organised by Head of Design & Technology, Simon O’Malley. Students learnt about a range of engineering careers from injection moulding to automotive engineering including vehicle crash testing, hawk-eye technology to heat interface units.

Many thanks to John Crawford (OW 2014), Fran Hopson (OW 2016), Holly Langston (OW 2017) Anna Herritty, Mike Hopson and Mitchell Porter-Keel (OWs 2018 ), who shared their journey from studying a variety of different A Level subject combinations and degrees to their current career in engineering.

WGS offers Design & Technology GCSE and Design & Technology Product Design A Level, both are taught in our Design Studio, CAD/CAM Modelling Suite and Worship, which are all housed within a purpose-built block. To find out more contact our Admissions Office on 01902 422939 or email admissions@wgs-sch.net.