02 November 2009 10:18
E.ON inspires students to help ignite careers in engineering

E.ON, one of the UK's leading energy companies, visited The Hundred of Hoo School in Hoo St Werburgh recently with its plugin2engineering programme to attract and inspire the UK's engineers of the future. 

E.ON representatives visited the school to deliver a fun workshop of hands-on engineering related tasks. The students, who attended voluntarily on what otherwise would have been a day off for staff training, enjoyed a wide range of activities on all aspects of electrical engineering.

Billie Holland, Community Relations Executive for E.ON, said: "We want to provide information and support in a way that really engages young people and captures their imagination.

"We offer as much support as we can for teachers, including course notes, links into the curriculum and support material, with teachers benefiting from plugin2engineering as well as other support we offer.

"We're delighted that the students of Hundred of Hoo gave up their own time to take part in our plugin2engineering programme. By offering these valuable learning tools it's our hope that not only will we ignite a fresh interest in engineering, but may be even encourage those interested to seek a career at E.ON power stations in the future."

Steve Harrall, a Science Teacher at Hundred of Hoo School, said: "It was a fun event and a change from normal lessons. We covered some new practical activities and it was fun working in teams to solve the problems.

"We learned a lot about transmitting electricity efficiently, energy sources and energy value for money. I feel that I learned a lot and I'm sure the students did too. It was good fun and I'd recommend it for other students doing an Engineering course."

 The plugin2engineering programme has been designed to encourage schoolchildren to become tomorrow's engineers as the country looks for the new talent that can build and maintain the power stations, overhead wires and underground cables that will keep the country's lights on for a generation.

This resource has been specially designed for children aged between 11 and 16, and it also offers strong links with the Key Stage 3 curriculum, GCSE Science and the new Engineering Diploma.

More information on plugin2engineering can be found at:

http://eon-uk.com/plugin2engineering.

Ends

Notes to editors:

• The Hundred of Hoo School has an active Technology faculty, running a number of Engineering courses at Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5. The school welcomes the involvement of local employers in its Engineering courses including Eon, BAE Systems and Delphi Diesel Systems.

• Keen to engage schools and support education across the board, E.ON also runs other initiatives, designed to offer valuable learning opportunities and to teach children about engineering. The Energy Experience, which involves trained E.ON volunteers engaging children in energy on a practical level, has been a success with young people across the UK and is a resource which helps teach 5- to 16-year-olds about energy. To find out more or request a classroom pack or volunteer lesson, visit: www.eon-uk.com/energyexperience
• As part of E.ON's overall approach to addressing the skills gap in the engineering industry E.ON has also launched the Engineering Academy. The training centre has been designed to overcome the skills shortage within the power and engineering industry to deliver the workforce needed to keep the country's lights on and homes warm for years to come. Based in Tipton, West Midlands, and at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire, the academy supports 220 E.ON Apprentices and education programmes to 288 young people from other local and national organisations.

• E.ON is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies - generating and distributing electricity, and retailing power and gas - and is part of the E.ON group, one of the world's largest investor-owned power and gas companies. We employ around 17,000 people in the UK and over 92,000 worldwide;
• We're one of the leading green generators in the UK, with 20 wind farms located from Cornwall to Northern Ireland. We also burn biomass material mixed with coal in two of our power stations and have completed one of the UK's largest dedicated biomass power stations at Lockerbie. Combined, our renewable portfolio generates enough green energy to power the homes in a city the size of Manchester.

For more information contact:

Victoria Blake on 02476 181304