Encouraging careers in engineering with Livery Schools Link

The Livery Schools Link is a great vehicle to bring together all the Livery Companies for the benefit of London schools and the promotion of our core trades and industries and the Coachmakers has been participating in this event for a number of years. Our stand had become so popular that we were asked to quieten it down after overshadowing other livery companies – this is where I came in!

After an absence of two years, the festival took place on 28th June for senior schools in pre-GCSE year and 29th June for junior schools. Unfortunately, this year we were in a lower hall and not in the mainstream of the event and began to wonder if we would ever see the promised pupils, until suddenly a ‘murder’ (not sure what the plural is for a swarm of 14- and 15-year-olds is) descended the steps, relieving our stand of all the sweets and chocolates we had put out.

Being ‘down with the kids’, we had set out the stand with QR codes to download the Engineering Careers and Automotive Engineering Careers Guide so in a new paperless world were able to convince interested boys and girls to do so to the tune of more than 70 downloads, ably encouraged by more Kinder treats!

Master Sarah joined us before meeting other Masters there for the day, and thank you Master for the delicious cakes brought to our stand.

Ellie Bacon, who sits on the Charity Committee and who was supported by us though her engineering degree and who is far nearer the age of the pupils than either myself or my wife was able to ‘hold court’ with many of the pupils.

The degree of interest from a large proportion of the schools was very encouraging. Given that we have a huge black hole in the engineering feedstock for the UK, we hope that a few or more of those 70 downloads triggers choices that will see engineers of the future develop and grow.