Our focus has been on engineering education; awareness and interest in engineering should be encouraged early in a young person’s education. We need to demonstrate the breadth and impact of engineering as a solution for the future, to those who may miss opportunities otherwise. Only 1/5th of A-level physics entries are from girls, showing that the imbalance has already occurred by this point.
We believe the most inspiring way to do this is to provide a connection between current engineers and students. Our solution is to combine the benefits that industry contacts can have on young people, and the benefits to industry from understanding and learning from tomorrow’s key stakeholders. Young people today are more motivated than ever to solve the big problems that climate change, and historic practices are creating.
Our proposal is a partnership program for children aged 11 – 16 in secondary schools starting at a national level but possible to expand globally. The program involves a specially designed toolkit of materials and prompts for each ability level. Alongside this toolkit, an industry sponsor will set an appropriate challenge with a focus on sustainability and a positive global impact. An example of a toolkit and challenge would be equipment such as lego and an introduction to biomimicry, with the challenge set to learn from nature to create an efficient design for new shaded seating in their playground.
Our idea will amplify the voices of the businesses taking part, which we hope would include many small, unique, entrepreneurs local to their community, whilst also making them introspective on their own involvement in technology, sustainability, and diversity. It will increase student’s awareness of the scope of engineering and begin to provide them with the skills needed to create a positive global impact.
#d2128 #education #partnership #impact
@Molly Ryall Thomson
Hi team, thanks for all the info. It sounds like you have a really solid idea for your proposal.
One thing to be sure of is clearly identifying a current issue within today's sustainability context that your plan aims to resolve and how. You may have done this but just make sure it is highlighted concisely in your proposal.
The plan for startup and ramp up is good. These things don't transform over night and your scaling that you explained makes a lot of sense.
I would be confident that companies will want to invest in this initiative. Involvement (both direct and indirect) in sustainability initiatives is becoming a large factor in swaying potential investors in companies and this would be a clear indicator of contributing to sustainability. Obviously there are a lot of schools however so a lot of money needed in total!
You've answered my question well regarding partnerships. Logistics, geography all come into it. International companies as well as local I think are just as feasible given the world's connectivity.
In terms of detail and structure, you do need to clearly justify your reasonings and the concept. Therefore it needs to be clear how the concept would be implemented both in its infancy and development. Communication of that overall concept is key. You don't need exhaustive detail for it to be understood.
Have you discussed or shared ideas with other teams? Collaboration both as a team and between other teams is a necessary building block to perfecting your proposal.
I hope that those notes help. Best of luck with your final proposal. You have a great idea and I think it is quite different to a lot of the other teams who have a lot of similarities so you have a good chance to stand out.
Remember with technical writing in engineering you need to be concise and clear when presenting your ideas. Whilst this project isn't technical as such it still needs that refined finish.
Good luck!
Oli