More than 40 school pupils enjoyed a week’s work experience at the Wotton-under-Edge headquarters of metrology company Renishaw (
www.renishaw.com) last month; they learnt about the business and undertook their own R&D project to design a new measurement system.
One of the pupils came from Illinois; the others came from 13 schools in England and Wales. Aged between 14 and 17, they worked in groups of six to develop a working prototype model of a measuring machine that could operate without the need for compressed air.
Each of them had an important role to play within their group, from marketing and design to production, purchasing and project management. The overall objective was to simulate the work of a real R&D team at Renishaw.
Group engineering director Geoff McFarland said: “The week of work experience was hugely successful. The students seemed to thoroughly enjoy their time at Renishaw, and we were delighted to have so many enthusiastic potential engineers at our headquarters.
“Many people have memories of work experiences spent making cups of tea, but we wanted to give the students a hands-on real-life experience that they would face if they worked at Renishaw, and I think we achieved that.”