What does it really mean to be an engineer? For our Prep pupils, a recent visit from Alistair Davies, Senior Electronic Hardware Engineer at McLaren Applied, now known as Motion Applied, showed them that the answer is far broader than they might have imagined.
Alistair joined pupils to talk about his career in engineering, beginning with a simple idea: engineers solve difficult problems.
Throughout the session, he challenged some of the assumptions children might have about engineering and demonstrated just how many different skills, interests and school subjects can eventually play a part in an engineering career.
Using his own work in electronics, Alistair explained how engineers design the circuits that act as the ‘brain’ behind a product, helping all its different parts to work together. To make the concept relatable, he encouraged pupils to imagine a circuit board as a tiny city, with different components performing different jobs and communicating with one another.
But electronics was just one part of the picture.
Under the message ‘Engineering is a team sport’, pupils discovered the many people involved in taking an idea and turning it into something that works. Mechanical engineers design physical parts, electronics engineers create circuits, software engineers write code, manufacturing teams work out how products can be made at scale, while project managers help bring everyone together.
Importantly, Alistair encouraged pupils to think about how the subjects and interests they have now could lead to careers they may never previously have associated with engineering.
A passion for Art and Design can be valuable in areas such as industrial design and engineering. An interest in Psychology and understanding how people behave can contribute to user experience and human-centred design. Maths, Science, Computing and Design Technology can open still more possibilities.
There is no single route to becoming an engineer either. By sharing his own journey, Alistair helped pupils understand that careers do not always follow a straight line and that the skills and interests they develop along the way can take them in unexpected directions.
Perhaps his most memorable message was also his simplest: if you enjoy building, fixing, making things and solving problems, you are already beginning to think like an engineer.
The talk particularly resonated with our Prep pupils, giving them an opportunity to connect what they learn in the classroom with the world beyond school and to see how the things they enjoy today could become part of their future.
A huge thank you to Alistair and McLaren Applied, now known as Motion Applied, for giving our pupils such an engaging insight into engineering and encouraging them to keep asking questions, making things and solving problems.
Who knows where their curiosity might take them?