County Durham-based Hitachi Rail (www.hitachirail-eu.com) is launching a brand-new educational programme (with Primary Engineer) that will see 2,700 schoolchildren — aged from five to 11 — learn about engineering with the help of experts in the field.

This initiative — announced during last month’s Rail Week — is part of the Year of Engineering, which aims to help tackle the serious shortage of engineers in the UK.

The programme will eventually see 50 schools in Ashford, Doncaster, Bristol, Newton Aycliffe and West London partner with engineers from Hitachi’s nearby train depots.

Teachers in four of these locations have received their training; this will be followed by a further session at Hitachi’s train-manufacturing facility in Newton Aycliffe.

This is the first time that Primary Engineer has partnered with a train manufacturer to develop one of its school programmes.

Hitachi Rail recognises the importance of working with schools to raise awareness of the range of careers that are available in the industry.

It chose to partner with Primary Engineer due to the latter’s excellent work over the last 13 years creating engineering programmes that span early years, primary, secondary and further education institutions.

During the joint sessions, the teachers and the Hitachi team will learn how to deliver a curriculum-linked rail engineering project that a whole class can take part in.

The KS1 project will use a shoe-box train, while KS2’s train will be electrically powered.

The project offers primary-school pupils an invaluable opportunity to work directly with Hitachi engineers in the classroom.