STEM ‘Hands on Science’ Trip to Qinetiq

On Friday 21 April twenty pupils from Year Nine travelled to Malvern by train to attend a ‘Hands on Science Day’ at QinetiQ in Malvern.  The visit was organised by Qinetiq’s STEM Ambassadors and involved many of their staff.  The company QinetiQ is a world centre of excellence in research and development, and acts as catalyst for fast-track innovation, offering outstanding experimentation facilities, technical, engineering and scientific expertise. 

RGS Worcester was one of five schools taking part in the day of STEM based activities. The activities required pupils to engage in small teams and carry out various exercises including problem solving and logic, coding, learning about security and radar systems, bridge building exercises and culminating in a lego coding exercise.

The pupils had the opportunity to speak with Qinetiq staff about the roles they hold and their qualifications. QinetiQ offers a range of Degree Apprenticeships and one of our group leaders was eight months into their Degree Apprenticeship in Project Management. The Apprentices described QinetiQ as a really supportive company where there is the opportunity to engage with employees of all different levels and abilities on different projects.  QinetiQ is apparently significantly expanding its Degree Apprenticeships from 120 to 200 across their sites.  Our pupils enjoyed learning about the work experience offered by Qinetiq and many hope to apply in the next few years.  

 After attending the event the pupils shared with us the highlights of their day: 

“QinetiQ is a research and testing facility for innovative technologies used in defence and security. An example of this is an improved radar tower used in Afghanistan which saved many lives by tracking and predicting missile trajectory.  They also told us that they are working on unique security cameras to secure our airports, bus and trains stations along with advanced simulations to train our armed forces for security threats.

Our favourite activity was the ‘Lego mindstorms’ We had to make and code Lego robots that we could race against other Schools. It was our favourite as it was a good team-building exercise and we had to overcome some difficult challenges.

We gained experience in areas such as coding, engineering, design and aesthetics and even cryptography. We developed our skills in communication and teamwork, and walked away with a goodie bag for winning the competition against four other schools”. – Edward Miles

QinetiQ delivered a Careers Seminar at RGS Worcester in September and also attended our recent Careers and Higher Education EXPO for pupils to learn about the range of opportunities available working in a STEM based career. To find out more about opportunities, please visit https://careers.qinetiq.com/content/Early-Careers/?locale=en_GB&_gl=1*121e6t3*_ga*MjcyMDkyNzU2LjE2Mjg1MDQzNTk.*_ga_DSEPRNQ6VX*MTY3Mjc1NjkwMC40ODkuMS4xNjcyNzYwMzk4LjAuMC4w