Three schools from Wales and Warwickshire were the main winners of the first ever ‘Design and Make Challenge’ organised by the Manufacturing Assembly Network (MAN).
Alcester Grammar, Southam College and Ysgol Bro Dinefwr beat off competition from four other rivals to take the Manufacturing, Innovation and Efficiency titles respectively.
In total, 28 students swapped their daily lessons for the chance to test out their engineering and design skills by using basic materials and tools to make a device capable of lifting a 13kg block of stainless steel using just a friction grip.
The event is the first in a number of activities being created by MAN in order to help it bridge the skills gap and start developing a ‘pipeline’ of future engineers.
Austin Owens, founder of Grove Design and the driving force behind the initiative, said: “Industry still has an image issue; we can no longer sit on our hands and just expect the Government to come up with a solution for getting more skills into our sector.
We want to get young people excited about design and engineering, so we decided to bring the collective strengths of the group together and host a special challenge that would get them thinking about STEM skills, designing and making a solution for a real engineering problem.
“Seven schools came forward, and the atmosphere was electric, especially with our young engineers providing hints and tips along the way. Out of the concepts created, five of them successfully lifted the block, while the other two were brave solutions that came really close.”
The Manufacturing Assembly Network is a collective of eight sub-contract manufacturers and an engineering design agency. It is made up of Alucast, Barkley Plastics, Brandauer, C-MAC SMT, Grove Design, KimberMills International, Mec Com, Muller Holdings and PP Control & Automation.
MAN is also currently working with Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) to improve processes and commercialise new technologies.