Delivering Vital STEM sessions for children across Leeds

Building Services Engineering apprentices and STEM ambassadors, Ibrahim Qadir and Ciaran Connelly, along with Senior Contracts Manager Mike Worrall, visited Co-op Academy Oakwood in Leeds to celebrate British Science Week.

The aim of the day was to inspire and inform the 240 students about different career paths available across a range of industries that they may not have considered before now, with the Vital Energi team flying the flag for the renewable energy and heat networks industry.

With the theme of British Science Week being ‘Connections’ the team explained the concept of Leeds PIPES project in more detail starting with how energy from waste works, and how it is converted into hot water to be transported across the city by the network of underground pipes. They also showed the pupils pictures of the wide range of recognisable buildings that are connected and benefitting from low carbon, reliable and affordable heat.

They finished the session with a Q&A where they shared more information about their own career journeys so far, and bust myths around what an engineer is, and isn’t. They highlighted the numerous pathways into engineering, such as apprenticeships and graduate schemes, explaining how broad of a term ‘engineer’ is, as it encompasses a wide range of disciplines, the roads to which are countless.