Nurturing tech talent for future careers in Enterprise Zone

Today, schools from around East Devon attended The Big Bang Fair South West 2019 at Westpoint Arena Exeter, hosted by CSW Group. 

The Big Bang Fair aims to inspire young people about future careers in science, technology, engineering, maths (STEM).

Two major employers, located in the Exeter and East Devon Enterprise Zone, were major sponsors of the event – Flybe as Headline Sponsors and Exeter Science Park as Gold Sponsors.

Cllr Ben Ingham, Leader of East Devon District Council, said: “Over 10,000 new jobs are expected to be created in the Exeter and East Devon enterprise zone area across a wide range of sectors. This will provide our talented young people in the district with the types of opportunities not available to previous generations.  

“From data science to advanced engineering, Big Bang inspires our young people to strive for these jobs in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine.  It is fantastic to see major local employers such as Flybe and Exeter Science Park sponsoring this key event.”

Teachers and students from Cranbrook's St Martin’s Church of England Primary School and Cranbrook Education Campus shared their Big Bang SW experiences of the day and their aspirations for the future.

Mr Rich Pepperell, Head of Science at Cranbrook Education Campus said: “We have brought the students to Big Bang SW to highlight the importance of STEM in our everyday lives and make them aware of the many different careers and companies that they might be interested in working for. They may not realise that they are science, technology, engineering or maths companies. 

“The best bit was definitely seeing the wide variety of different careers. The students saw for themselves the range and diversity of people who actually work in STEM. It was a real highlight.”

Students from Cranbrook Education Campus were inspired by their visit. 

Ky said: “I talked to Flybe about careers and apprenticeships. I really want to work for them.”

Dafydd said: “Finding out more about technology jobs was the best bit for me. I want to work in coding, to be a developer and I want to work locally for the kind of companies based at Exeter Science Park.”

Mackenzie said: “I want to work in engineering. At Big Bang SW, I really like the domes, where they talked about all the past moon missions and about constellations.”

Jonny Sluman, Teacher at St Martin’s Church of England Primary School at Cranbrook, said: “We’ve had a great day at Big Bang SW. The visit will have a massive impact in terms of the students’ learning within school and their engagement with science technology engineering and maths. It gives them the opportunity to see the purpose of it and how they can apply it to life skills for their future endeavours.

"Today’s visit gave the young people opportunities to see real life STEM applications and how it links into what they will do in the future.”

Pupils from St Martin’s C of E Primary School said their favourite experiences were the science demonstrations on stage which included exploding teddy bears and loud jet engines which would dry your hair! The space exhibition, exploring outer space was another favourite.