Inspiring young minds – the London Careers Festival 2026

The Coachmakers once again took part in the annual Livery Careers Fair, part of the London Careers Festival, which gives Livery Companies the opportunity to connect with students from schools in the Greater London area to inform, engage and enthuse them about careers in our core trades and industries.

This is the third careers event in our livery year, together with the Brooklands Innovation Academy and the Science Museum Skills Fair. Between them we connect directly with several hundred young people to inspire them towards careers in our associated industries.

This year’s Careers Fair took place at the Guildhall on 2nd March for junior schools and the 3rd for older students. The Company had an engaging and interesting stand in the magnificent surroundings of the library.

Our 3D printer, acquired courtesy of Liveryman Mike Malone and Past Master Bettine Evans, continues to be a major draw to attract students to the stand and start a conversation about engineering, and how new technologies are always emerging.

In addition, we provided different activities for the two age groups, with an exercise for younger students to put a rivet into a piece of aluminium – a lesson in how aircraft are made – while older students got hands-on and practical in the Great Plug Race. We have run this before: it brings out the competitive element in young people, and it never ceases to surprise just how adept some young people are at a practical task, given the chance.

The level of interest and engagement from the young people in attendance was very encouraging. Taking part is hugely rewarding in engaging with bright young people who just might, with our help, become future leaders in our industries.

Many thanks to under-35 Freemen Patryk Nelkowski (who devised the rivet exercise) and Alex King, and to Assistant Roger Woodbridge and Liveryman Andrew Blatherwick who helped man the stand during the two days.

Why do we do this? We still have a skills gap in engineers and technicians in the UK – we weren’t training enough engineers when I studied, many years ago, and we still aren’t. Engineering UK puts the shortfall at tens of thousands of engineers and technicians every year. The more of these events we can take part in, the more chance we have of triggering young people to make choices that will help fill that gap, and give them rewarding careers they might not have been aware of.

Pictured: Junior Warden Eric Wallbank, Freeman Patryk Nelkowski, Freeman Alex King and Assistant Roger Woodbridge, with the careers stand set up, awaiting the onslaught of students.