More than 40 school students lived a week’s work experience at the Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire headquarters of metrology company Renishaw. From the 6th to the 10th of July 2015, the students learnt about the business and undertook their own research and development project to design a new measurement system.
The 42 students came from 13 different schools across England and Wales, with one student travelling from Illinois in the United States to attend the week of hands-on work experience, the first such week Renishaw has organised.
Julie Collins, Renishaw’s Education Liaison Manager, said, “Each year we give one-week work experience placements to around 70 students. Whilst this has generally worked well, we decided this year to run a pilot scheme which was more project-based and which we felt would give students experience of working in teams to tackle realistic engineering challenges.”
Throughout the week, the students, aged between 14 and 17, worked in groups of six to investigate, create and develop a working prototype model of a measuring machine which could operate without the need for compressed air. Each student had an important role to play within their group, from marketing and design, to production, purchasing and project management, with the overall objective of the project being to simulate working in a research and development team at Renishaw.