Children at Rhosymedre School have fun learning about robot cars

Children at Rhosymedre Community Primary School in Wrexham have had fun learning how to programme robot cars, helped by Ken Skates, AM for Clwyd South.

• Watch the video (YouTube)

The “Engineering the Future” workshop, led by Techniquest Glyndwr, was the latest in a series of workshops run by Techniquest in schools in Wrexham to encourage children to learn digital skills and find out more about autonomous vehicles.

“The workshop I saw today was fantastic. Digital skills are going to drive economic growth in the future and ensuring young people are really enthusiastic about developing these skills is vitally important,” said Ken Skates after his visit to the school.

The workshop was supported by the Engineering Education Grant Scheme which is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the IET and aims to increase engineering knowledge of students aged 5 to 19.

The new Welsh schools’ curriculum, which will be rolled out from 2022, will emphasise “real-world” learning experiences, making programmes like “Engineering the Future” even more crucial, said Liz Edwards, Head Teacher at Rhosymedre Community Primary School.

“I was thrilled to see how much the children enjoyed learning to programme the cars. It was fun but more importantly, workshops like these encourage the children to see what opportunities could be open to them – technology will be key to many of the jobs of the future,” she added.

Nearly 200,000 young people and over 7,000 teachers have taken part in projects supported by the EEGS programme which supports projects across the UK. The scheme, which has two funding rounds a year, makes awards of up to £15,000 to STEM projects.

Notes to Editors

• If you would like a copy of the report, please contact the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Press Office on 020 7304 6877 or at media@imeche.org
• The Institution of Mechanical Engineers was established in 1847 and has some of the world’s greatest engineers in its history books. It is one of the fastest growing professional engineering institutions. Headquartered in London, we have operations around the world and over 120,000 members in more than 140 countries working at the heart of the most important and dynamic industries such as the automotive, rail, aerospace, medical, power and construction industries.