South Yorkshire school seeks industry partner for electric car project

22 March 2007

To coincide with National Science and Engineering Week (12-18 March 2007), a Sheffield school is launching its search for an industry partner to support an exciting engineering project.

A group of Year 11 students at Yewlands School Technology College in Sheffield is involved in a project to design an electric car for city driving, as part of the new Vocational GCSE in Engineering.

Gareth Thomas, Head of Engineering at Yewlands, is looking for an industry partner to sponsor the project in future and help students learn more about how the engineering industry works.

Thomas explained: "The project came about because it was something I was interested in and, after chatting to the students, I discovered they were interested too. They were particularly keen on the environmental aspect and did loads of research to come up with the plan of designing a one-seater city vehicle. "

"What has been great is the practical element. Each student has made a computer-aided design 3D drawing of their city vehicle, showing all the batteries and wiring, and they built scale models which the students then raced. The logical next step for the project is to work with a representative from the engineering industry in the area, so that the students can learn about how the skills they are learning could be put to use in the workplace."

Jonathon Hefferon, 15, a Year 11 student involved in the project, has applied to do an Apprenticeship in Automotive Engineering at Mercedes Trucks, with one day a week at college. He commented: "The electric vehicle project has been great, because I've always liked engineering, but this has really inspired me to go into Automotive Engineering and hopefully get the job at Mercedes."

Vocational courses and school-industry partnerships, such as the one Yewlands is hoping to establish, are being put in place to ensure that South Yorkshire's future workforce is equipped to keep engineering and science industries thriving in the area for years to come.

Over the next 5 years, there is a projected need for 6000 Level 3 (A level or equivalent) trained engineers in South Yorkshire. In addition to the work taking place in schools, there are currently 250 14-16 year olds taking engineering qualifications in training centres to help meet this need and to give students the work-related skills needed to succeed in the industry on a day release basis.

The Yewlands School project is one of many work-related learning projects going on in South Yorkshire. Anyone interested in working with the Yewlands Schools on the car design project can contact Gareth Thomas on 0114 232 9010.